Aristocratic Networks and Monastic Communities: The Case of the Dominican Convent of Sigtuna, Sweden, and the Nobles of Uppland (Late Thirteenth-Early Fourteenth Centuries)

Abstract

The Dominican convent of Sigtuna, mid-Sweden, enjoyed close connections with the surrounding aristocracy in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. This is particularly well documented in a comparatively high number of donations to this convent that originated from a genealogically connected circle within the aristocracy of Uppland. This article argues that the joint support of an ecclesiastical community by a group of laypersons can hint at this group’s collaboration in other societal or political fields. In the present case such other fields of cooperation can be identified in the joint support of the cult of St Erik and the foundation of the helgeandshus in Uppsala.