Emma of Normandy was a Norman-born noblewoman who became the English, Danish, and Norwegian queen through her marriages to the Anglo-Saxon king Æthelred the Unready and the Danish king Cnut the Great. A daughter of the Norman ruler Richard the Fearless and Gunnor, she was Queen of the English during her marriage to King Æthelred from 1002 to 1016, except during a brief interruption in 1013–14 when the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard occupied the English throne. Æthelred died in 1016, and Emma married Sweyn's son Cnut. As Cnut's wife, she was Queen of England from their marriage in 1017, Queen of Denmark from 1018, and Queen of Norway from 1028 until Cnut died in 1035.
Edward the Confessor was an Anglo-Saxon English king and saint. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 until his death in 1066.
Sweyn Forkbeard was King of Denmark from 986 until his death, King of England for five weeks from December 1013 until his death, and King of Norway from 999/1000 until 1013/14. He was the father of King Harald II of Denmark, King Cnut the Great, and Queen Estrid Svendsdatter.
Magnus Olafsson, better known as Magnus the Good, was King of Norway from 1035 and King of Denmark from 1042 until his death in 1047.
Olof Skötkonung, sometimes stylized as Olaf the Swede, was King of Sweden, son of Eric the Victorious and, according to Icelandic sources, Sigrid the Haughty. He succeeded his father in c. 995. He stands at the threshold of recorded history, since he is the first Swedish ruler about whom there is substantial knowledge. He is regarded as the first king known to have ruled both the Swedes and the Geats. In Sweden, the reign of king Olov Skötkonung is considered to be the transition from the Viking age to the Middle Ages, he was the first Christian king of the Swedes, who ruled central Sweden. Norse beliefs persisted in parts of Sweden until the 12–13th century.
Richeza of Poland, a member of the House of Piast, was twice Queen of Sweden and once Princess of Minsk through her three marriages.
Sweyn Estridsson Ulfsson was King of Denmark from 1047 until his death in 1076. He was the son of Ulf Thorgilsson and Estrid Svendsdatter, and the grandson of Sweyn Forkbeard through his mother's line. He was married at least two times, and fathered 20 children or more out of wedlock, including the five future kings Harald Hen, Canute the Saint, Oluf Hunger, Eric Evergood, and Niels.
Sigrid the Haughty, also known as Sigrid Storråda (Swedish), is a Scandinavian queen appearing in Norse sagas. Sigrid is named in several late and sometimes contradictory Icelandic sagas composed generations after the events they describe, but there is no reliable historical evidence correlating to her story as they describe her. She is reported by Heimskringla to have been wife of Eric the Victorious of Sweden, sought as wife by Olaf Tryggvasson, then married to Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark, but elsewhere author Snorri Sturluson says that Sweyn was married to a different woman.
Inge the Elder was a king of Sweden. In English literature he has also been called Ingold. While scant sources do not allow a full picture of his term of kingship, he is known to have led a turbulent but at length successful reign of more than two decades. He stands out as a devout Christian who founded the first abbey in Sweden and acted harshly against pagan practices. The kingdom was still an unstable realm based on alliances of noblemen, and Inge's main power base was in Västergötland and Östergötland; one of the earliest chronicles that mention his reign knows him as rex gautorum, king of the Geats.
Blot-Sweyn was a Swedish king c. 1080, of disputed historicity, who was said to have replaced his Christian brother-in-law Inge as King of Sweden, when Inge had refused to administer the blóts at the Temple at Uppsala. There is no mention of Sweyn in the regnal list of the Westrogothic law, which suggests that his rule did not reach Västergötland. According to Swedish historian Adolf Schück he was probably the same person as Håkan the Red and was called the Blót Swain as an epithet rather than a personal name.
Świętosława was a Polish princess, the daughter of Mieszko I of Poland and sister of Bolesław I of Poland, who married two Scandinavian kings. According to some chroniclers, this princess, whose name is not given, was married first to Eric the Victorious of Sweden and then to Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark, giving the former a son, Olof, and the latter two sons, Harald and Cnut. Because a documented sister of Cnut seems to have borne the Polish name Świętosława, it has been speculated that this may also have been the name of their mother, the Polish princess of the chroniclers.
Helena or Elin, possibly also known as Maer, Mär or Mö, was Queen of Sweden as the wife of King Inge the Elder, and a supposed sister of King Blot-Sweyn of Sweden.
Gunhilda of Wenden was a Polish princess, daughter of Mieszko I of Poland according to Chronicles of Thietmar of Merserburg, Adam von Bremen and Acta Cnutonis regis princess and Danish Viking Age queen consort, the supposed spouse of 10th-century King Sweyn I of Denmark. The sources about the wife or wives of Sweyn are contradictory, and historians have debated whether she is the Polish Świętosława given another name in Norse sources.
Events from the 1040s in England.
Estrid Svendsdatter of Denmark, was a Danish princess and titular queen, a Russian princess and, possibly, duchess of Normandy by marriage. She was the daughter of Sweyn Forkbeard and perhaps Gunhild of Wenden and half-sister of Cnut the Great. By Ulf Jarl, she was the mother of the later King Sweyn II Estridson and Beorn Estrithson. The dynasty that ruled Denmark in 1047–1412 was named after her. Though never a ruler or wife of a king, she was known in Denmark as queen during her son's reign.
Helen, is the assumed name of a medieval Swedish princess and Danish queen, Queen consort of King Canute V of Denmark. The date of her birth is not known; her father was King Sverker I of Sweden and her mother has been assumed to be Sverker's first spouse, Queen Ulvhild.
Gyda Anundsdotter of Sweden, also known as Guda and Gunhild, was a medieval and Viking Age Swedish princess and Danish queen consort, spouse of King Sweyn II of Denmark.
Tyra of Denmark was a 10th-century Danish princess. She was the spouse of both King Olav I of Norway and of Styrbjörn Starke, prince of Sweden.
Blotstulka, or Blot-Tulca, is a name known in legend for an alleged Swedish medieval queen consort, spouse of a King "Blot-Sweyn" of Sweden who may have reigned in the 1080s. The name can be seen as the equivalent to that of her spouse, with the meaning: "The Woman Sacrificer" or "The Maiden Sacrificer"; as her spouse's name was "Sweyn the Sacrificer", which can also be translated as "The Man Who Performs the Sacrifices".
Cultural depictions of the English king Æthelred the Unready have generally been less than flattering. Many of these portrayals are based on legendary material about the king written by later scribes such as William of Malmesbury.
