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- Lord of Rydboholm Castle Erik Johansson Vasa, 1470
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Erik Johansson Vasa (1470 – 8 November 1520) was the Lord of Rydboholm Castle in the Roslagen. He was born around the year 1470 to Johan Kristiernsson Vasa and Birgitta Gustafsdotter Sture in a village named Örby in the province of Uppland, Sweden. He was one of four children from Johan and Birgitta.
Erik Johansson Vasa was a faithful adherent of the
Stures, a powerful and influential family in Sweden from
the late 15th century to the early 16th century, and was
notorious for his irritable and arbitrary temper. He
assisted the Stures in fighting against the Danes, who
controlled most of Sweden during the early 16th century.
When the Danes, under Christian II, conquered Sweden and
took the capital, Stockholm, in 1520 several members of
the Sture party were executed in the Stockholm Bloodbath
in November of that year, among whom was Erik Johansson.
His first son, Gustav Eriksson Vasa had escaped from
Denmark some time previously and survived. As Gustav I, he
became the King of Sweden in 1523 and founder of the House
of Vasa.
He married Cecilia Månsdotter Eka and had eight children with her. All of their children were born in either Orkesta or Rydboholm Castle, in the present day county of Stockholm. Their children were:
- Gustav Eriksson Vasa (12 May 1496 - 29 September 1560)
- Margareta Eriksdotter Vasa (1497 - 31 December 1536)
- Johan Eriksson (b. 1499, d. young)
- Magnus Eriksson (1501 – 1529)
- Anna Eriksdotter (1503 – 1545)
- Birgitta Eriksdotter (b. 1505, d. young)
- Marta Eriksdotter (1507 – 1523)
- Emerentia Eriksdotter (1507 – 1523)