Cecilia Knutsdotter

Lady Cecilia Knutsdotter was a medieval Swedish mighty and wealthy noblewoman of high nobility. She is known as "hertigsdotter", Duke's daughter.

She is mentioned as daughter of the "Duke Canute", and historians differ who that exactly was. For hypotheses, see below. The somewhere in genealogies floating idea that Cecilia's mother were a daughter of king Canute I of Sweden lacks all historical support and must therefore be discarded as unattested romantics.

Cecilia married Geatish lord Filip, who became ancestor of the famed Aspenäs noble house whose Arms depicted lejonörn (= Griffin). Historians differ also over whose child Filip was, what was his correct patronymic and what was his seat manor. After Filip's death, Cecilia lived plenty of years as rich widow; a benefactor of monasteries and so forth. Ultimately she was buried beside her husband Filip.

Historians also differ over whether Filip had more than one wife. If he had an earlier wife, then it is not certain that Cecilia was the ancestress of the Aspenäs (lejonörn) nobles. But if she was the only wife, then it is only natural to presume that she is their ancestress (and future generations of the "Lejonörn" certainly used first names Knut and Cecilia), which makes her an important figure for future generations of that prominent family.

It is presumed that her husband belonged to those who opposed centralized power in Sweden. He seems to have been party in revolts against king Eric XI of Sweden and against the regent Birger jarl sometime in the 1240s and 1250s.

Cecilia had attestedly son Birger Filipsson, Lord of Idö, executed by beheading as rebel on 20 August 1280, and daughter Ingegerd Filipsdotter.

Concluded from, among other reasons, the occurrence of the names Knut and Cecilia among Jon's close descendants, her eldest son was Jon Filipsson who was executed as rebel in 1280.

Similarly, she presumably had at least two surviving daughters, of whom it is not known if one of them were the with name attested daughter of hers, Ingegerd: one of those daughters married lord Filip Törnesson, justiciar of Närke, and became great-great-grandmother of children of baron Jon Havtoreson, the Norwegian royal hopefuls; and the other married the rebel lord Karl Tjelveson of Fånö, and became foremother of for example the noble families of Eka and of Frössvik (whose daughters produced regents and kings of Sweden).

Cecilia's father, Duke Canute

Who was that "Duke Knut", Cecilia's historically mentioned father?

Three sufficiently possible and credible alternatives have been proposed:
* jarl Knut Birgersson of the Bjelbo family, Riksjarl of Sweden who was killed in 1208 in battle of Lena
* Canute, Duke of Reval, holder of Blekinge in southern borders of Sweden - bastard son of king Valdemar II of Denmark and Helena, daughter of Swedish riksjarl Guttorm ("Örnfot")
* jarl Knut Haakonson, claimant of the throne of Norway in late 1220s (leader of Ribbunger party in Norway); son of jarl Haakon Galin (whose father was Folkvid, justiciar of Vermelandia, and mother was Cecilia Sigurdsdottir of Norway, daughter of king Sigurd II) and Kristin Nikolasdottir, daughter of Nikolas Blaka and Karin Eriksdotter of Sweden, daughter of king St.Eric of Sweden.

jarl Knut Birgersson has been deemed somewhat uneasy choice because of chronological problems. That Knut died 1208, and because of her children's age and her own likely death date, Cecilia firstly need to have been born in the very end of Knut's life (c 1208) when Knut was already elderly (and several decades after birth of that Knut's other attested child/children); and even that makes Cecilia somewhat old for her own marriage and to give birth to her attested children, at last one of whom was executed in 1280 and Cecilia possibly was then living. Additionally, name Cecilia appears not in Knut's immediate family nor his direct ancestry.

Duke Canute is uneasy choice because his descendants married with presumed descendants of Cecilia in generations that were Cecilia his daughter and ancestress of that issue, there would have been a marriage of a lady and her first cousin's son, something not almost ever dispensated in those centuries by church. Additionally, name Cecilia appears not in that Knut's family nor his ancestry.

Finally, claimant Knut Haakonson of Ribbunger, earl of Norway, is uneasy choice (though possibly easiest of these) because he was not generally called duke. He probably would be called king, or earl, or lord, or master, but not easily duke which title was adopted to Norway in Knut's and Cecilia's lifetime as higher than earl (actually, to Knut's father-in-law duke Skule). However, his recognized title jarl is translated as Dux at least in Sweden. The name Cecilia certainly is present in that Knut's ancestry.