Erik Johansson (Vasa) was the Lord of
Rydboholm in the
Roslagen. He was born around the year
1470 to Johan Kristiersson (
Vasa) and Birgitta Gustafsdotter (
Sture) in a town named
Örby in what was then
Uppland (today:
Uppsala), Sweden. He was one of four children from Johan and Birgitta. He married
Cecilia Månsdotter and had eight children with her. Their children were:
#
Gustav Eriksson (Vasa) (May 12, 1495 - September 29, 1560)
:*
Gustav Eriksson would become King of Sweden in 1523
#Margareta Eriksdotter (Vasa) (1497 - December 31, 1536)
#Johan Eriksson (b. 1499, d. young)
#Magnus Eriksson (1501 - 1529)
#Anna Eriksdotter (1503 - 1545)
#Birgitta Eriksdotter (b. 1505, d. young)
#Marta Eriksdotter (1507 - 1523)
#Emerentia Eriksdotter (1507 - 1523)
All of their children were born in either
Orkesta or
Rydboholm, in the present-day county of
Stockholm (
Swedish: Stockholms Län), in southeastern
Sweden. He died on November 8,
1520 in
Stockholm, Sweden.
Erik Johansson was a faithful adherent of the
Stures, a powerful and influential family in Sweden from the late
15th century to the early
16th century, and was notorious for his irritable and arbitrary temper. He assisted the Stures in fighting against the
Danes, who controlled most of Sweden during the early 16th century. When the Danes, under
Christian II, conquered Sweden and took the capital, Stockholm, in 1520 several members of the Sture party were executed in the
Stockholm Bloodbath in October of that year, among whom was Erik Johansson. His first son,
Gustav Eriksson (Vasa), future King of Sweden and founder of the
House of Vasa, survived by hiding.