page_title: Aristocracy of Norway
section_title: Cognatic descent of medieval aristocracy
hierarchical_section_title: Aristocracy of Norway / Relation to the people / Cognatic descent of medieval aristocracy
context_page_description: Aristocracy of Norway refers to modern and medieval aristocracy in Norway. Additionally, there have been economical, political, and military élites that—relating to the main lines of Norway's history—are generally accepted as nominal predecessors of the aforementioned. Since the 16th century, modern aristocracy is known as nobility.
  The very first aristocracy in today's Norway appeared during the Bronze Age. This bronze aristocracy consisted of several regional élites, whose earliest known existence dates to 1500 BC. Via similar structures in the Iron Age, these entities would reappear as petty kingdoms before and during the Age of Vikings. Beside a chieftain or petty king, each kingdom had its own aristocracy.
  Between 872 and 1050, during the so-called unification process, the first national aristocracy began to develop. Regional monarchs and aristocrats who recognised King Harald I as their high king, would normally receive vassalage titles like Earl. Those who refused were defeated or chose to migrate to Iceland, establishing an aristocratic, clan-ruled state there.
context_section_description: A large number of Norwegians may trace ancestral lines back to members of various levels of medieval aristocracy. They must very often cross numerous cognatic links (Norwegian: kvinneledd) and go back to the 16th century in order to establish a connection to the nobility. (An important consideration in this regard is that many experts dispute some popularly accepted family relations, which they consider undocumented or obviously wrong.) Queen Sonja of Norway, born a commoner, has noblemen among her distant forefathers.
  Whilst nearly all families of medieval aristocracy have become patrilineally extinct, there are families today whose patrilineal ancestors were close cognatic descendants of old noble families, for example some Nordland families, the most prominent being the Ellingsen family, whose progenitor shipper and tradesman Elling Christophersen was a great-grandson of Margrethe Jonsdotter Benkestok, and the Christensen family of the Husby Estate, whose progenitor shipper and tradesman Anders Christensen was a great-great-grandson of aforementioned Margrethe.
  Even though a family could lose their noble status, they would usually keep their land and fortune. There are examples of non-noble descendants who have inherited previously noble land centuries after the noble family concerned had become patrilineally extinct. One example is the estate of the Benkestok family, who lost their noble status in the late 16th century and disappeared patrilineally after 1672. The estate originally consisted of land in Eastern, Western, and Northern Norway as well as on the Faroe Islands and Shetland. Whilst the first generations of inheritors received large portions of land, it would subsequently be divided into smaller and smaller parts so that inheritors of later generations each received, be it, a large farm.
  Concerning descent from royalty through nobility, nobility expert Tore Vigerust has stated, though as a conservative estimate, that roughly 10,000 Norwegians living today can document with certainty their descent from the old kings of Norway and European royal houses. Vigerust has identified the noble families Gyldenløve of Austrått and Rosensverd as families whose royal descent is verifiable.
  Examples:
  Carl Martin Ellingsen (1848–1926), of the aforementioned Nordland family Ellingsen, was a Member of Parliament.
caption: Descendant of the medieval aristocracy: Carl Martin Ellingsen (1848–1926).
  Photo: Sophus Körner
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