Olof Skötkonung Eriksson ¹

  General Notes:

Olof Skötkonung Eriksson of Sweden. Also known as Olaf the Tax King.

King of Sweden whose efforts to impose Christianity were frustrated by the leading non-Christian Swedish chieftains.

The son of King Erik the Victorious, Olaf opposed the development of a strong Norwegian state and joined Sweyn I Forkbeard, king of Denmark, and his allies in a victorious war against Norway in 1000. Olaf subsequently married his illegitimate daughter Holmfrith to the earl Sweyn, one of the Danish viceroys in Norway. Initially opposed to Olaf II Haraldsson, king of Norway, he later made peace with him and married his other illegitimate daughter, Astrid, to the Norwegian ruler. His legitimate daughter, Ingigerth, married Yaroslav I the Wise, grand prince of Kiev.

A committed Christian, Olaf was prevented by advocates of the native Norse religion, based at the temple at Uppsala, from personally enforcing conversion. Missionaries from many European countries, however, carried out the work of conversion. Olaf's life is described extensively in Icelandic sagas of the 13th century.

Acceded: King of Sweden, c. 995.
[source: Ketil Len Nygaard's Genealogy, http://nygaard.howards.net/]