Sigrid the Haughty
Please allow me to introduce you to Sigrid the Haughty. Sigrid may or may not have lived from around 927 CE to 1014 CE. I say she may have lived during this time because she is so daggum awesome some historians think she may be a legend. I, however, choose to believe this woman really did grace the Earth with her presence.
Sigrid first married Eric the Victorious, King of Sweden, and with him popped out a few kiddos. One of those kiddos was Olaf, the next King of Sweden.Things were going pretty well for our girl Sigrid until Eric went and died. This was very rude of him, but Sigrid got a lot of money and still got to hang out with the King of Sweden so it was pretty OK until everybody kept trying to marry her.
Her first suitor was Harald. Sigrid was raised with Herald, so he thought he had a pretty good chance with her. Unfortunately for him, Sigrid disagreed. When Harald made it clear to Sigrid that he only wanted to marry her for her money, she invited him to a feast, got him drunk, and burned down the hall. Literally. With actual fire.
Next came King Olaf. Not her son, but another King Olaf. This one was King of Norway... lets call him Nolaf to keep it clear. Well Nolaf was the literal worst. First, he sent our girl a fake gold ring that was actually copper. This was suuuuuuper not OK with Sig. Then, Nolaf told Sig he would only marry her if she converted to Christianity. When she told him that she preferred to follow the religion of her ancestors, but he could practice whatever religion he wanted, this fucker slapped our girl with his glove.
Now, since they not in a place that Sigrid could burn down around him, instead they just parted ways. However, unlike other queens in the area, Sigrid did not Let it Go. Sigrid went on to marry Danish King Svein Forkbeard. She then convinced him that Nolaf slept with his sister and he should go to war with Nolaf. Svein knew that his wife was always right, so he wrote to Olaf (the one thats Sigrid’s son) and together Danish and Swedish forces went against Nolaf and killed him dead.
Then Sigrid and Svein moved to England, did some conquering, and left their son to become King Cnut the Great. Arguably, he got his greatness from his mother.
