Haakon IV
Haakon IV Haakonsson, sometimes called Haakon the Old in contrast to his namesake son, was King of Norway from 1217 to 1263. His reign lasted for 46 years, longer than any Norwegian king since Harald Fairhair. Haakon was born into the troubled civil war era in Norway, but his reign eventually managed to put an end to the internal conflicts. At the start of his reign, during his minority, Earl Skule Bårdsson served as regent. As a king of the Birkebeiner faction, Haakon defeated the uprising of the final Bagler royal pretender, Sigurd Ribbung, in 1227. He put a definitive end to the civil war era when he had Skule Bårdsson killed in 1240, a year after Skule had himself proclaimed king in opposition to Haakon. Haakon thereafter formally appointed his own eldest son, Haakon the Young, as his co-regent.
Under Haakon's rule, medieval Norway is considered to have reached its zenith or golden age. His reputation and formidable naval fleet allowed him to maintain friendships with both the pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, despite their conflict. He was at different points offered the imperial crown by the pope, the High Kingship of Ireland by a delegation of Irish kings, and the command of the French crusader fleet by the French king. He amplified the influence of European culture in Norway by importing and translating contemporary European literature into Old Norse, and by constructing monumental European-style stone buildings. In conjunction with this he employed an active and aggressive foreign policy, and at the end of his rule added Iceland and the Norse Greenland community to his kingdom, leaving the Norwegian realm at its territorial height. Although he for the moment managed to secure Norwegian control of the islands off the northern and western shores of Scotland, plus the Isle of Man, he fell ill and died when wintering in Orkney following some military engagements with the expanding Kingdom of Scotland. He was succeeded by his second son, Magnus VI.
Historical sources
The main source of information concerning Haakon is the Saga of Haakon Haakonsson, which was written in the years immediately following his death. Commissioned by his son Magnus, it was written by the Icelandic writer and politician Sturla Þórðarson. Having come into conflict with the royal representative in Iceland, Sturla came to Norway in 1263 in an attempt to reconcile with Haakon. When he arrived, he learned that Haakon was in Scotland, and that Magnus ruled Norway in his place. While Magnus initially took an unfriendly attitude towards Sturla, his talents as a story-teller and skald eventually won him the favour of Magnus and his men. The saga is considered the most detailed and reliable of all sagas concerning Norwegian kings, building on both written archive material and oral information from individuals who had been close to Haakon. It is nonetheless written openly in support of the political program of the House of Sverre, and the legitimacy of Haakon's kingship.Background and childhood
Haakon was born in Folkenborg to Inga of Varteig in the summer of 1204, probably in March or April. The father was widely regarded to have been King Haakon Sverresson, as Inga had been with Haakon in his hostel in Borg in late 1203. King Haakon was the leader of the Birkebeiner faction in the ongoing civil war against the Bagler faction. He was dead by the time his son Haakon was born, but Inga's claim was supported by several of the king's followers. Haakon was born in Bagler-controlled territory, and his mother's claim placed them in a dangerous position. When the Baglers started hunting Haakon, a group of Birkebeiners fled with the child in the winter of 1205/06, heading for Inge Bårdsson, the new Birkebeiner king in Nidaros. As the party was struck by a blizzard, two of the best Birkebeiner skiers, Torstein Skevla and Skjervald Skrukka, carried on with the child over the mountain from Lillehammer to Østerdalen. They eventually managed to bring Haakon to safety with King Inge; this particular event is commemorated in modern-day Norway by the popular annual skiing event Birkebeinerrennet. Haakon's dramatic childhood was often parallelled with that of former king Olaf Tryggvasson, as well as with the gospels and Child Jesus, which served an important ideological function for his kingship.In the saga, Haakon is described as bright and witty, and as being small for his age. When he was three years old, he was captured by the Baglers but refused to call the Bagler king Philip Simonsson his lord. When he learned at the age of eight that King Inge Bårdsson and his brother Earl Haakon the Crazy had made an agreement for the succession to the throne that excluded himself, Haakon pointed out that the agreement was invalid due to his attorney not having been present. He subsequently identified his attorney as "God and Saint Olaf." Haakon was notably the first Norwegian king to receive formal education at a school. From the late civil war era, the government administration relied increasingly on written communication, which in turn demanded literate leaders. When Haakon was in Bergen under the care of Haakon the Crazy, he began his education at the age of seven, likely at the Bergen Cathedral School. He continued his education under King Inge at the Trondheim Cathedral School after the Earl's death in 1214. Haakon was brought up alongside Inge's son Guttorm, and they were treated as the same. When he was eleven, some of Haakon's friends provoked the king by asking him to give Haakon a region to govern. When Haakon was approached by the men and was urged to take up arms against Inge, he rejected it in part because of his young age and its bad prospects, as well as because he believed it would be morally wrong to fight Inge and thus split the Birkebeiner. He instead said that he prayed that God would give him his share of his father's inheritance when the time was right.
Reign
Succession struggle
After King Inge's death in 1217, a succession dispute erupted. Haakon was supported by the majority of Birkebeiners, including the veterans who had served under his father and grandfather. Other candidates included Inge's illegitimate son Guttorm ; Inge's half-brother Earl Skule Bårdsson, who had been appointed leader of the king's hird at Inge's deathbed and was supported by the Archbishop of Nidaros as well as part of the Birkebeiners; and Haakon the Crazy's son, Knut Haakonsson. With his widespread popular support in Trøndelag and western Norway, Haakon was proclaimed king at Øyrating in June 1217. He was later the same year hailed as king at Gulating in Bergen, and at Haugating, Borgarting and local things east of Elven. While Skule's supporters initially had attempted to cast doubt about Haakon's royal ancestry, they eventually suspended open resistance to his candidacy. As the dispute could have divided the Birkebeiners, Skule settled on becoming regent for Haakon during his minority.In connection with the dispute over the royal election, Haakon's mother Inga had to prove his parentage through a trial by ordeal in Bergen in 1218. The result of the trial strengthened the legal basis for his kingship, and improved his relationship with the Church. The saga's claim that Haakon already had been generally accepted as king in 1217/18 has however been contested by modern historians such as Sverre Bagge. Skule and Haakon increasingly drifted apart in their administration, and Skule focused mainly on governing Eastern Norway after 1220, which he had gained the right to rule in 1218 as his third of the Norwegian kingdom. From 1221 to 1223, Haakon and Skule separately issued letters as rulers of Norway, and maintained official contacts abroad. In 1223 a great meeting of bishops, clergy, secular nobles, and other high-ranking figures from all across the country was held in Bergen to decide finally on Haakon's right to the throne. Other candidates to the throne were present either personally or through attorneys, but Haakon was in the end unanimously confirmed as King of Norway by the court.
The last Bagler king Philip Simonsson died in 1217. Speedy political and military manoeuvering by Skule led to a reconciliation between the Birkebeiners and Baglers, and thus the reunification of the kingdom. However, some discontented Baglers found a new royal pretender, Sigurd Ribbung, and launched a new rising from 1219. The rising only gained support in parts of Eastern Norway, and was did not gain control of Viken and Opplandene as the Baglers formerly had done. In the summer of 1223, Skule forced the Ribbungar to surrender. However, The great meeting in Bergen soon after renewed the division of the Norwegian kingdom, with Skule gaining control of the northern third of the country instead of the east, in what marked a setback despite his military victory. In 1224, Sigurd escaped from Skule's custody, and Haakon was left to fight him alone as the new ruler of Eastern Norway. Skule remained passive throughout the rest of the war, and his support for Haakon was lukewarm at best. Assuming the military lead in the fight, Haakon nevertheless defeated Ribbung through comprehensive and organisationally demanding warfare over the next few years. As part of the campaign, Haakon additionally led a large army into the Värmland district of Sweden in 1225, to punish the inhabitants for their support of Sigurd. Sigurd died in 1226, and the revolt was finally quashed in 1227 with the surrender of its last leader, Haakon the Crazy's son Knut Haakonsson. This left Haakon more or less uncontested monarch.
Haakon's councillors had sought to reconcile Haakon and Skule by proposing marriage between Haakon and Skule's daughter Margaret in 1219. Haakon accepted the proposal, but the marriage between Haakon and Margrete did not take place before 1225, partly due to the conflict with Sigurd. The relationship between Haakon and Skule nevertheless deteriorated further during the 1230s, and attempted settlements at meetings in 1233 and 1236 only distanced them more from each other. Periodically, the two nonetheless reconciled and spent a great amount of time together, only to have their friendship destroyed - according to the saga, by intrigues derived from rumours and slander by men who played the two against each other. Skule was the first person in Norway to be titled duke in 1237, but instead of control over a region, gained the rights to the incomes from a third of the syssels scattered across the whole of Norway. This was part of an attempt by Haakon to limit Skule's power. In 1239 the conflict between the two erupted into open warfare when Skule had himself proclaimed king. Although he had some support in Trøndelag, Opplandene, and eastern Viken, he could not stand up to Haakon's forces. The rebellion ended when Skule was killed in 1240, leaving Haakon the undisputed king of Norway. This revolt is generally taken to mark the final end of Norway's civil war era.