CHAPTER XXVII
Magnus Erlingson (1162-1184)—The Birchlegs
AFTER the battle of Sekken, Erling Skakke proceeded with King Magnus and the whole army up to Nidaros, where the Thing was convened, and Magnus was proclaimed king of all Norway. They remained there but a short time, however, for Erling did not put great faith in the Throndhjem people. Erling returned with his son to Bergen, and later in the fall went to Tunsberg, where he intended to stay during the winter.
Some of the late King Haakon’s chiefs, who had not been present at the battle, among them Earl Sigurd of Reyr, refused to acknowledge King Magnus. They left their ships in Raumsdal and went over to Uplands, where they found many adherents. They chose for their king a young son of King Sigurd Mund, named Sigurd Markusfostre (i.e., foster-son of Markus), who had been brought up by Markus of Skog, a friend and relative of Earl Sigurd. Quite an army was collected, but as the territory they held was small, their foraging became burdensome to the people, and there was considerable dissatisfaction. Erling Skakke took advantage of this, and when finally a battle was fought at Ree, near Tunsberg, he easily defeated Sigurd’s adherents. Earl Sigurd fell in the battle (February, 1163). Sigurd Markusfostre and his foster-father were captured and killed in the fall of the same year.
The archbishop in Nidaros was at that time Eystein, a son of Erlend Himalde, who descended from a very influential family in the Throndhjem district. In the summer of 1164 Erling Skakke had a conference with Archbishop Eystein in Bergen, where all the bishops of the country were then assembled, together with the legate from Rome, Stephanus. The result of the conference was that Magnus was to be anointed and crowned as king by the archbishop, while on the other hand it was agreed that in the future the church—represented by the archbishop and the other bishops, together with twelve leading men from each bishopric selected by the bishop—was to decide at the death of a king which one of his heirs was to succeed him; and if the king left no heirs of whom the magnates approved, they were to elect a successor to the throne. In the presence of the papal legate, the bishops, and a great many other clergymen, King Magnus, who was then eight years old, was anointed and crowned by the archbishop. Magnus, Erling’s son, was the first crowned king in Norway. By this solemn act Erling Skakke believed he had secured his son’s dynasty on the throne, and he could now with greater safety turn his whole attention to internal and foreign enemies, as he felt convinced that the greater part of the people would rally around the anointed king.
When King Valdemar of Denmark heard that Erling Skakke had defeated Haakon Herdebred and Sigurd Markusfostre, and that his son Magnus had been crowned king of the whole country, he sent a message to Erling and reminded him of the agreement, by which Viken was to be ceded to the Danish king, if Magnus became king of Norway. Erling and his advisers showed no inclination to adhere to the agreement, and the messenger returned to Denmark without having accomplished anything. In the spring of 1165 King Valdemar sailed with a fleet north to Viken in order to take possession of the province. He tried peaceful proceedings; but he was so coolly received by the people of Viken that he returned to Denmark, preferring, as he said to his men, to use his army against the heathens of Vendland. The hostility between Norway and Denmark, however, lasted some time. Erling made a cruise to Jutland and defeated the Danes in a battle at Dyrsaa, and returned to Norway with a great booty. A second expedition of King Valdemar to Viken in the spring of 1168 became as indecisive as the first, so far as establishing any authority there; but he dealt the inhabitants of Viken a hurtful blow by forbidding them to trade with Denmark, at the same time forbidding the Danes to export grain to Norway.
While Erling Skakke was absent on an expedition to Denmark, a band of rebels was organized under the leadership of a new pretender, Olaf, a son of King Eystein Magnusson’s daughter Maria, in her marriage with the chief Gudbrand Skafhoggson, who fell with King Inge in the battle at Oslo. Olaf was brought up by an influential man named Sigurd Agn-Hat. Probably from the latter’s surname the adherents of Olaf were called Hat-Swains (Hættesveiner). The Hat-Swains proclaimed Olaf king, and went through the Uplands, and sometimes down to Viken, or east to the forest settlements. At Rydjokel, near Lake Oiern, they surprised Erling Skakke and his men early one morning, and in the fight that followed killed several of Erling’s men and drove the remainder down to their ships. Because Olaf did not succeed in capturing Erling, although the odds were all in his favor, he was afterward called Olaf the Unlucky (Ugæva). The following spring the Hat-Swains met Erling in battle at Stanger, in the eastern part of Viken, where Erling won a decisive victory. Sigurd Agn-Hat and many others of Olaf’s men fell here. Olaf escaped by flight, went south to Denmark, and spent the winter in Aalborg, where he died of sickness the following spring (1169).
The interruption of the navigation between Norway and Denmark under the decree of King Valdemar worked great hardship to the Norwegians, especially the inhabitants of Viken, and Erling Skakke was finally induced to open negotiations for peace. He spent a winter in Denmark, and in the following spring peace was finally concluded, the terms being that Viken should be under the sovereignty of the Danish king, but Erling was to hold it in fief as King Valdemar’s vassal with the title of Earl. Erling returned to Norway, and the peace with Denmark was afterward well preserved.
Erling Skakke considered it a policy of necessity to remove any person who by reason of royal birth might become rivals of his son to the throne. King Sigurd Mund had left a daughter named Cecilia. As soon as she became old enough, he sent her to Vermeland and made her the mistress of Folkvid the lawman, knowing that the children from such a connection could not become dangerous rivals. About the same time one of the king’s men discovered and brought to Erling a young man named Harald, who in all secrecy had been brought up in the Uplands. He was the son of Erling’s own wife Kristina, and his father was the late King Sigurd Mund. An illicit intimacy between such near relatives as Kristina and Sigurd was, under the church laws of the time, considered one of the greatest sins, and everything had therefore been done to keep the matter secret, and Kristina had heretofore succeeded in concealing her guilt. When Erling saw the illegitimate son of his wife before him, he said very little, and those present understood that the young man was doomed. King Magnus, who had taken a liking to Harald, interceded in his favor; but his father answered: “Thou wouldst govern this kingdom but a short time in peace and safety, if thou wert to follow the counsels of the heart only.” Earl Erling ordered Harald to be taken to Nordnes, where he was beheaded.
Erling Skakke, however, did not succeed in removing all pretenders. In the year 1174 there appeared on the scene a young man called Eystein, who claimed to be a son of King Eystein Haraldson. He was small of stature, and had a fine, soft face, and he was therefore generally called Eystein Meyla (Little Maiden). He first went on a visit to Gautland to Earl Birger Brosa, who was married to Eystein’s aunt, Brigida, a daughter of Harald Gille. They received him well, and furnished him some assistance in men and money. Eystein then proceeded to Norway, and when he came to Viken many people flocked to him. His followers proclaimed him king, and he remained in Viken during the winter. His means of subsistence being soon exhausted, they commenced to rob and steal wherever there was an opportunity. They were not strong enough to remain long in any one place, but roamed about in mountains and forests. They suffered great hardships. Their clothes being worn out, they wound the bark of the birch-tree about their legs, and therefore the people called them Birkebeiner (i.e., Birchlegs). During the two years which the Birchlegs spent in and about Viken (1174-76), they had three battles in regular array with the peasants, and were victorious in them all; but at Krokaskog they came near meeting a disaster in encountering a superior force, and they only saved themselves by a hasty flight.