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Håkan the Red (Swedish: Håkan Röde) was a king of Sweden, reigning for about a decade in the second half of the 11th century. There is little information on him, and it is mostly contradictory. Nothing is known about his reign.
Despite contradiction in the sources, Håkan's position as a successor of Stenkil in the line of Swedish kings is generally accepted as correct. He would have reigned from 1070 in some areas of Sweden (succeeding Halsten Stenkilsson also known as Halsten), and from 1075 in Uppland too (succeeding Anund Gårdske). The regnal line in Nationalencyklopedin omits Anund Gårdske and presents Håkan as successor of Halsten Stenkilsson. Nationalencyclopedin also suggests that he may have ruled jointly with Inge the Elder in the 1080s. A papal letter from Gregory VII is addressed to Inge together with either Håkan or Halsten Stenkilsson as kings of the västgötar, ordering them to collect tithe and send priests to Rome to educate themselves.
According to Encyclopædia Britannica: "At the end of the Viking Age [approximately 1050], Sweden remained a loose federation of provinces. The old family of kings died out in 1060; after the death of the last of these kings' son-in-law, Stenkil, in 1066, a civil war broke out. Around 1080 Stenkil's sons, Ingi and Halsten, ruled". |
