Strängnäs cathedral takes over the parishes Sigurd Jonsson held in Selebo
SDHK 24353 · 31. juli 1442 · Strängnäs
Sigurd Johansson in the letter is probably Sigurd Jonsson of Sudreim and Giske, and Count Hans is then his father-in-law. The letter shows that Sigurd had held parishes near Gripsholm in Sweden through pledges from his wife and father-in-law, and that he lost them in 1442.
What the letter says
Magnus Gren, knight and commander in Stockholm, has been commissioned by the king, together with several other men, to put Strängnäs cathedral in possession of the estates of Bo Jonsson's heirs. In Strängnäs on 31 July 1442, together with Folke in Brink, deputy lawman in Södermanland, he puts the cathedral in possession of the parishes «Yfra och Ytra Sela» and Toresund parish in Selebo hundred, which Count Hans and Sigurd Johansson had held.
Background
Sigurd Johansson in the letter is probably Sigurd Jonsson of Sudreim and Giske, and Count Hans is then his father-in-law, Count Hans of Eberstein, the father of Philippa. Norsk biografisk leksikon relates that through pledge rights that came from his wife and father-in-law, Sigurd gained control of three parishes in Selebo hundred near Gripsholm Castle. This letter shows that the three parishes, Över-Selö, Ytter-Selö and Toresund, were taken from them in 1442 and given to Strängnäs cathedral on the king's orders. Bo Jonsson is probably the drottsete Bo Jonsson Grip, who died in 1386 leaving the largest collection of estates in Sweden, and after whom Gripsholm is named. The same year Christopher of Bavaria was accepted as king in Norway, where Sigurd had been regent. The letter shows that Sigurd's power and property reached far into Sweden, and that he could lose them when a new king reorganised the estates. The original is in the Swedish National Archives in Stockholm.
People: Sigurd Jonsson