Sweyn Estridsen was King of Denmark (Sweyn II) from 1047 to 1074. He took the matronymic surname Estridsson after his mother Estrid Svendsdatter, emphasizing his link to the Danish royal house through her lineage. Sweyn was the last Viking king of Denmark, and marked the transition between the Viking Age to the Middle Ages in Danish history.
He was married twice, first to Gyda of Sweden - daughter of King Anund Jacob - in 1047 and then to to Gunnhildr Sveinsdóttir in 1050. Sweyn fathered at least twenty children throughout his life, of whom only one was born in wedlock. Despite his complex personal life, he maintained strong ties with the church and was instrumental in strengthening Christianity in Denmark. His reign was notable for strengthening the Danish church, and establishing a stable succession of Danish kings through his many sons.
Reconstruction of Sweyn’s head from 1911 based on his cranium. Photo: Arne Kvitrud, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
His burial in Roskilde Cathedral began a tradition that would continue through the centuries, with the cathedral serving as the main burial church for Danish monarchs.
In a groundbreaking ancient DNA analysis published by Dissing et al. in 2007 titled "The last Viking King: A royal maternity case solved by ancient DNA analysis." His remains were genetically tested, and shown to belong to Haplogroup H. This finding became crucial in solving a historical mystery, as a separate DNA analysis of the tomb that was thought to contain his mother showed that she belonged to haplogroup H5a, making it impossible for her to have been his mother. The tomb is now believed to contain one of his daughters-in-law, possibly Margareta Hasbjörnsdatter, who was married to his son Harald Hen.
References
Dissing, J., Binladen, J., Hansen, A., Sejrsen, B., Willerslev, E., & Lynnerup, N. (2006). The last Viking King: A royal maternity case solved by ancient DNA analysis. Forensic Science International, 166(1), 21–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2006.03.020
Pictured: Coin of Sweyn Estridsen. Peter Christian Hauberg (1844-1928), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Biography in part generated using Anthropic (2024) Claude 3 Opus [Large language model].
