Eric Trolle


Eric Trolle was elected regent of Sweden in 1512, during the era of Kalmar Union. He was Justiciar of Närke and a Lord High Councillor of Sweden from 1487.

Biography

Eric Arvidsson was born around 1460 into an important family of high nobility and was apparently aiming at a clerical career. Eric's parents were lord Arvid Birgersson Trolle and his first wife Kerstin Jonsdotter. His father had connected him to the powerful family Thott by marrying Beata Ivarsdotter Tott as his second wife in 1466. His last stepmother was his father's third wife Brita Turesdotter Bielke.
Eric studied at the University of Rostock and University of Cologne, had positions as Canon in Uppsala and Linköping but was never ordained. Eric was elected Regent at the meeting of the High Council of Sweden in 1512 upon the death of regent Svante Nilsson, Lord of Ekesiö, but never actually took office, being superseded by Svante's son, the young Sten Sture the Younger.
He married in 1487 the wealthy Ingeborg Philipsdatter , his stepmother's first cousin, as his first wife and settled on her manor Ekholmen Castle in Uppland. His second wife, from about 1512, was Karin Eriksdotter Gyllenstierna, much his junior, who survived until around 1562. She was a great-granddaughter of King Charles VIII of Sweden. Eric Trolle's son Gustav Trolle became Archbishop of Uppsala and leader of the Church of Sweden.

Wives

First marriage

either first or second marriage: