Benedict, Duke of Finland

Who was Benedict, Duke of Finland?

Bishop Benedict, Duke of Finland was a Swedish prelate and a royal duke.

His father was Birger Jarl, the real ruler of Sweden from the years 1250 to 1266, and his mother was Princess Ingeborg of Sweden, daughter of Eric X of Sweden.

Older but non-contemporaneous Swedish literature has for some reasons made Benedict a son born of Birger's second wife Mechtild of Holstein, dowager Queen of Denmark. However at the time of his birth, Mechtild, widow of Abel of Denmark, yet sojourned evidently in Denmark, and Ingeborg died in 1254.

Youngest son of Birger and youngest brother of King Valdemar I of Sweden and Magnus, Duke of Sweden, later also king, he was put to an ecclesiastical career. Archdeacon of Linköping Cathedral, he became his brother Magnus's chancellor when Magnus was king. In 1284, some time after the death of his next-elder brother Eric of Småland, and during the reign of their brother Magnus III, dominus Benedict was created Duke of Finland, the first known holder of that title and appanage. The title may have been just that of Sweden, the successor office of the position of Riksjarl of Sweden, held previously by Eric of Småland, and earlier by Magnus. In this reconstruction, Benedict was called duke of Osterlandia, or Finland, because seemingly much of his fiefs were located in Finland - like his brother Eric's had been in Smalandia.