Editing Sture (section)

==Sture (Sjöblad) Family==
[[File:COA_family_sv_Vingätten.svg|thumb|right|150px|Arms of the Sture (Sjöblad) family]]

The first Sture line to emerge is known in Swedish historiography as the Sjöblad Family ({{langx|sv|Sjöbladsätten/Sjöbladssläkten}}) to differentiate it from later kin-groups with the name Sture, as its [[coat of arms]] bore three ''[[Seeblatt|seeblätter]]'' (stylised [[Nymphaeaceae|water lilies]]), known in Swedish as ''sjöblad''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=34621 |title=Sture (sjöbladsätten) |last=Gillingstam |first=Hans |website=Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Carlsson |first=Gustaf |date=1918 |title=Nordisk familjebok, Volume 27 |url=https://runeberg.org/nfcg/0286.html |location=Stockholm |publisher=Nordisk Familjeboks Forlag |pages=503–4}}</ref>

The earliest known member of the family was {{ill|Anund Sture|sv|Anund Sture}}, a landowner from [[Västergötland]] who is first attested in 1310. He seems at the time to have been a loyalist of [[Birger, King of Sweden|King Birger]], but later defected to his brother and rival [[Erik, Duke of Södermanland|Erik Magnusson]]. After Erik's death, Anund served his son, [[Magnus IV of Sweden|King Magnus Eriksson]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=34621 |title=Sture (sjöbladsätten) |last=Gillingstam |first=Hans |website=Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon}}</ref>

Anund's great-great-grandson, Gustaf Algotsson Sture, lived a century later. Around 1438 he married Birgitta Stensdotter, a member of the [[Bielke|Bielke family]] and half-sister to the powerful [[Marshal of the Realm (Sweden)|Marshal of the Realm]], [[Charles VIII of Sweden|Karl Knutsson Bonde]], who ten years later declared himself King of Sweden as Karl VIII.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=34621 |title=Sture (sjöbladsätten) |last=Gillingstam |first=Hans |website=Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon}}</ref>

Gustaf and Birgitta had a single son, Sten Gustafsson Sture, known retrospectively as [[Sten Sture the Elder]] to distinguish him from a later Sten Sture (for whom see below). He was one of his uncle King Karl's strongest supporters, and upon Karl's death in 1470 he was named regent ({{langx|sv|riksföreståndare}}) and guardian to the king's infant son Karl Karlsson. Sten's position was initially shaky, but he quickly established his authority by defeating a Danish invasion at the [[Battle of Brunkeberg]] in 1471. He made no attempt to have Karl Karlsson crowned king, but nor did he seize the throne himself, and instead continued to rule the kingdom as regent for the next thirty-two years, albeit with an interruption in the period 1497-1501. He did not have any children, and so the Sjöblad line died with him when he died in 1503.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=34628 |title=Sten Sture |last=Schück |first=Herman |website=Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon}}</ref>