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Concept
Emund the Old
Summary
Emund the Old or Edmund (Swedish: Emund den gamle, Old Swedish: Æmunðær gamlæ, Æmunðær gammal, Æmunðær slemæ) was King of Sweden from c. 1050 to c. 1060. His short reign was characterised by disputes with the Archbishopric of Bremen over church policies, and a historically debated delimitation of the Swedish-Danish border.
Emund was the son of Olof Skötkonung, the first Christian ruler of Sweden. His mother was a co-wife, Edla, daughter of a Slavic chief from the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. He had two uterine sisters called Astrid and Holmfrid. His half-siblings, born by Olof's legitimate Queen Estrid of the Obotrites, were Anund Jacob and Ingegerd. According to the 13th-century historian Snorri Sturluson, Estrid was ill-tempered and treated her stepchildren poorly. King Olof later sent Emund to be raised with his mother's Slavic family. While staying there he failed to hold on to the Christian religion.
Olof was succeeded by his other son Anund Jacob, who however did not have any known sons of his own. Snorri relates that Emund was ruling in Sigtuna, an important center in the Swedish realm, by 1035. However, other sources show that Anund Jacob was still alive then; the names Anund and Emund might have been mixed up. The German ecclesiastical chronicler Adam of Bremen, in his Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum (Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church), says that Anund Jacob died in or shortly after 1049 and was succeeded by Emund; there is nothing to suggest that the succession was irregular.
Our only near-contemporary source for Emund's reign is Adam of Bremen, who paints a very negative picture of the new ruler. This is mainly due to the self-willed attitude of Emund vis-à-vis the Archdiocese of Bremen. Adam relates that Emund was baptised but cared very little for the Christian faith. He also gives Emund the cognomen pessimus (worst), which is later reflected by the short chronicle of the Westrogothic law (c. 1240) which likewise knows the king as Slemme, the bad.
Official source
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