Torkel Knutsson

Torkel hailed from an old noble family of West Geatish ancestry and was related to the House of Bjälbo (Folkungaätten).

[1] Before his death, King Magnus Ladulås (c. 1240 – 1290) ordered his kinsman, Torkel Knutsson, the Constable of the Realm, to be the guardian of his son Birger.

At Torkel's castle Aranäs, in 1304, the two dukes had to sign a declaration that they would neither in Sweden, nor abroad, work against the king nor cause him harm.

In spite of this declaration, the two dukes fled abroad and with the support of the Norwegian king Haakon V of Norway, they attacked Västergötland.

His first wife, whose origins are unknown, gave him a daughter Kristina Torgilsdotter, who married Torkel's godson and later enemy Duke Valdemar.

This article contains content from the Owl Edition of Nordisk familjebok, a Swedish encyclopedia published between 1904 and 1926, now in the public domain.