
King Eric on his gravestone

The seal of king Eric XI of Sweden
Eric XI Ericsson (
Old Norse:
Eiríkr Eiríksson) (1216 –
February 2,
1250)
den läspe och halte: "the lisp and lame," was king of Sweden 1222–1229 and 1234–1250. He was the son of king
Erik X of Sweden and
Rikissa of Denmark.
Referring to Eric Ericsson as Eric XI is a later invention. The Swedish kings
Erik XIV (1560–68) and
Charles IX (1604–1611) took their numbers after studying a highly fictitious History of Sweden. He was actually
Erik VI.
According to the biased chronicle
Erikskrönikan written in the early 1320s, he is said to have been partly lame. Eric was born after his father, King Eric X of Sweden, had already died, and in the meantime the fifteen-year-old
John I of Sweden from the rival
House of Sverker had been hailed king by the Swedish aristocracy (against the will of the
Pope, who wanted Eric as king).
When John I died in 1222, the five-year-old Eric was hailed King, with a distant male cousin, who was adult, first as leader of the regency council and then as co-King
Canute II of Sweden. In 1229, Canute exiled Eric to Denmark and ruled alone.
After Canute's death in 1234, Eric returned and ruled until his own death in 1250. He was buried in the monastery of
Varnhem in
Västergötland. Eric was married to Queen
Catherine, daughter of (Jarl) Sune Folkason of Bjälbo and an heiress of the House of Sverker. Commonly, sources say that Eric was childless, but some sources claim that he had a couple of baby daughters who died.
In 1236 King Eric XI's (apparently youngest) sister Ingeborg had been married to
Birger Magnusson (this was Birger's first marriage)—he was son of a female heiress of the Sverker dynasty. Their underaged eldest son
Valdemar was elected king 1250 to succeed Eric, possibly by-passing the sons (if such existed) of Ingeborg's elder sisters. Birger became the Regent.
Skáldatal reports that
Óláfr Þórðarson was one of Eric's court
skalds.