The rival of the Sverkers for the Swedish crown, and the dynasty of Saint Eric, Sweden’s patron saint.
The dynasty’s founder, Eric IX, ruled Sweden from about 1156 and is remembered as a law-giver and crusader who, by tradition, led an expedition to Christianise Finland. He was killed at Uppsala in 1160 by a rival, and his tomb became a centre of pilgrimage.
Venerated as Saint Eric, he became the patron saint of Sweden and the emblem of its medieval monarchy, his image and the "Eric penny" tying the dynasty to the sacred.
Eric IX’s death began the long alternation of the Erik and Sverker houses on the throne. His son Knut Eriksson killed the Sverker king Charles VII to avenge his father and ruled for nearly thirty years, and the two families continued to trade the crown by war and assassination into the thirteenth century.
Erik Knutsson defeated the Sverkers in battle to reclaim the throne, but the struggle repeatedly threw the kingdom into civil war.
The last Erik king, Eric XI, ruled with the powerful jarl Birger of the House of Bjälbo as the real power behind the throne. When Eric XI died childless in 1250, Birger secured the crown for his own son Valdemar.
So the Erik dynasty gave way to the Bjälbo (Folkung) line, which would build the medieval Swedish state.