Renaissance angle
ⓒRebecca Bugge, All Rights Reserved
Do not use without permission.
The corner of the reliquary containing Eric IX of Sweden (in Sweden generally known as Erik den helige, Eric the Holy). The king was, according to legend, assassinated after attending Mass in 1160. The king was never officially canonized, but that was no hindrance for celebrating him as a saint in Sweden, where he was viewed as the ideal ruler.
The shrine is not the original reliquary for the bones. This is number three. The first was made when he left his original burial place (in Old Uppsala, Östra Aros) in 1273. The second shrine was made in the early 15th century. That one was confiscated by the king Gustaf I at the time of the Reformation. But his son Johan III donated a new shrine, this one made 1574-79 by his goldsmith Hans Rosenfälth. And this angle sits at one of the corners of that shrine, which still is at Uppsala cathedral.
And are the remains in the shrine really that of the original king? It's likely. The remains have been studied at two separate occasions, the second time in 2014-16. The skeletal parts fit with a man of the right age - both of the person at the time of death and period in time - and build (that is, it must have been someone noble who had been properly fed at a time when that was not something everyone could take for granted), and with damages to the skeleton that fits the description of his murder. DNA was also extracted which even more confirms that this very likely is the legendary king Eric.
Renaissance angle
ⓒRebecca Bugge, All Rights Reserved
Do not use without permission.
The corner of the reliquary containing Eric IX of Sweden (in Sweden generally known as Erik den helige, Eric the Holy). The king was, according to legend, assassinated after attending Mass in 1160. The king was never officially canonized, but that was no hindrance for celebrating him as a saint in Sweden, where he was viewed as the ideal ruler.
The shrine is not the original reliquary for the bones. This is number three. The first was made when he left his original burial place (in Old Uppsala, Östra Aros) in 1273. The second shrine was made in the early 15th century. That one was confiscated by the king Gustaf I at the time of the Reformation. But his son Johan III donated a new shrine, this one made 1574-79 by his goldsmith Hans Rosenfälth. And this angle sits at one of the corners of that shrine, which still is at Uppsala cathedral.
And are the remains in the shrine really that of the original king? It's likely. The remains have been studied at two separate occasions, the second time in 2014-16. The skeletal parts fit with a man of the right age - both of the person at the time of death and period in time - and build (that is, it must have been someone noble who had been properly fed at a time when that was not something everyone could take for granted), and with damages to the skeleton that fits the description of his murder. DNA was also extracted which even more confirms that this very likely is the legendary king Eric.