House of Stenkil

The House of Stenkil is a modern name for the royal dynasty that ruled over Sweden from around 1060 to the 1120s. It has received its name from its first king, Stenkil, who according to the Westrogothic Law's king list originated from Västergötland and who was probably married into the old royal dynasty that died out around 1060. Stenkil died c. 1066 and our knowledge of the following two decades is very uncertain and sparse. Immediately after his death, civil wars are said to have broken out between two claimants to the throne, both named Erik, one of whom may possibly have been Stenkil's son. Sometimes Håkan the Red is also identified as Stenkil's son. What is certain is that Stenkil was the father of kings Halsten and Inge the Elder. Halsten was in turn the father of kings Philip and Inge the Younger. When the latter died, the Stenkil dynasty died out in the male line.

It is not unlikely that all kings during the 12th century were in one way or another related to the Stenkil dynasty. The connections that are known went through Inge the Elder's children (three daughters and one son named Margareta Fredkulla, Katarina, Christina, and Ragnvald). Margareta's son Magnus Nilsson laid claim to the Swedish throne in the 1120s and succeeded in being elected king by the Geats. Katarina became mother-in-law to Erik the Holy, who was the ancestor of the House of Erik. Ragnvald became maternal grandfather to the Danish prince Magnus Henriksson, who laid claim to Sweden's throne around 1160 and killed both Sverker the Elder and Erik the Holy. No close connection between the Stenkil dynasty and the Sverker dynasty is known, but Kristina Ingesdotter became great-grandmother to Karl Sverkersson's wife.