Erik II (Norway)

Portrait of Erik Magnusson in Stavanger Cathedral.

Erik II (Erik Magnusson) (* 1268 ; † July 10 or 13, 1299 in Bergen ) was King of Norway from 1280 to 1299 .

His parents were King Magnus VI. lagabætir (1238–1280) and his wife Ingeborg Eriksdatter (1244–1287). In his first marriage in 1281 he married Margrete Aleksandersdotter (1261-1283), in his second marriage in 1293 Isabella Bruce (1280-1358). He learned French and English from his wife Margrete. He also knew Latin. From his wife Margrete he had the daughter Margarete , Queen of Scotland, from his wife Isabella the daughter Ingebjørg .

The underage king

At the Diet in Bergen in the summer of 1273, King Magnus Lagabætir made his son Erik king and his son Håkon duke. After his death in 1280, Erik was crowned by Archbishop Jon Raude and seven other bishops in the Christ Church in Bergen on July 2nd . At the same time there was a synod of bishops and a diet, at which a guardianship government was formed from barons and officials from the royal entourage for the king, who was still underage. In all likelihood, the Queen's Dowager also belonged to this body, which was expressly referred to as the “Royal Council” for the first time in Norwegian history. Even after the king came of age in 1282, the focus of politics was in this body.

Erik's reign was characterized by two focal points: church policy and foreign policy.

Conflict with the church

Tensions with the church emerged as early as the coronation negotiations in 1280. The dispute revolved around the economic privileges of the church, its jurisdiction and its legislative competence for Christian law. There were already agreements with King Magnus lagabætir on this. In his coronation oath, Erik promised to recognize the Church's financial and spiritual rights. But immediately after the coronation, the guardianship government passed an extensive legislative change to the detriment of the church. Archbishop Jon Raude then had an extensive statute passed at the synod at the same time, in which he laid down the ecclesiastical legislative competence in church matters and threatened to excommunicate anyone who should interfere with these rights. Both parties then turned to the Pope. Nevertheless, the government and the church remained in conversation, so that, for example, the archbishop and seven other bishops crowned Erik and his first wife Margrete in Bergen in 1281. But the confrontation intensified because the councilman Bjarne Erlingsson withdrew the right to coin money granted by Håkon Håkonsson one day after the archbishop's departure . The conflict eventually led Archbishop Jon to go to Skara in Sweden with the bishops of Oslo and Hamar in late summer 1282 , where he died that same year. The guardianship government consistently and systematically continued its anti-church policy at the Ting assemblies in the parts of the country and through instructions to the jurists and Sysselmenn , emphasizing that they were fighting for the unity of the empire and the sovereignty of the government and not "clerical merchants" (nessekonger ) wanted to tolerate in the country. The government sought to curtail the economic privileges of the church. They also fought against the introduction of new tithe levies by the church according to the regulation of 1277 and the expansion of the episcopal fines according to the same regulation. Finally, the sale of silver to clergymen and thus also the export of currency to the Pope in support of the fighting in the Holy Land was forbidden. In addition, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction was curtailed. In addition, they suspended all editions of Christian law from the time of King Magnus. The government wanted to restore the legal status of the church to the status it had before royal privileges in the 1270s. The death of the archbishop let the church resistance collapse, so that the "Royal Council" in 1283 could dictate a provisional settlement. During this time, an epidemic raged in Norway, which killed many, even noble men. There were bad harvests and famine. The king also suffered the misfortune that he fell from his horse, got his foot caught on the stirrup, was dragged over stick and stone and barely escaped death. This was widely viewed as a punishment for anti-church policies. But it was not until 1290 that a long-term comparison came about and established the old Christian law from the time before 1277 for the church. So she lost the advantages she had acquired in 1277. This persistent dispute between secular power and the church later led to the unjustified nickname "prestehatter" (priest hater) for King Erik.

Foreign policy

The guardianship government also initiated a change in foreign policy. They turned away from Magnus lagabætir's peace policy and followed the more aggressive line that Håkon Håkonsson had followed for 20 years.

Conflict with the Hanseatic League

The attempt to restrict German local trade in Bergen led to an open conflict, which the Danish King Erik V. Klipping joined. The Wendish cities with Lübeck at the head in the Baltic Sea blocked the Oresund . In 1285 the government was forced to make a comparison with the Hanseatic League about the trading zones in order to gain scope for the continuation of King Håkon Håkonsson's anti-Danish policy. The settlement that was concluded in Kalmar cost Norway 6,000 silver marks and resulted in complete equality of the Hanseatic merchants with those in Bergen. Only the ban on domestic trade and trade north of Bergen remained.

War against denmark

When King Erik Klipping was murdered in 1286, the Danish aristocratic opposition was accused of murder. She was banished from Denmark, lost her property and found refuge in Norway. She made herself available to the anti-Danish war policy in order to be able to return to her old positions. Their leaders were Count Jacob von Halland and Stig Andersen Hvide d. Ä. , the former military leader Erik Klippings. He established himself on the island of Hjelm in the Kattegat, and Count Jacob built the fortress of Hunehals in North Halland. With this they controlled the access to the Baltic Sea.

Between 1289 and 1295, King Erik undertook four major campaigns against Denmark. The main objective was to gain military bases in the Øresund and on the Halland coast. The Norwegian nobleman Alv Erlingsson , who probably provoked the Hanseatic blockade through his raids against Hansa ships, played a special role . A provisional comparison of 1295 in Hindsgavel on Funen, renewed in 1298, normalized the Norwegian-Danish situation to some extent. The exiles were rehabilitated and King Erik was given the use of his Danish mother's estates in Denmark.

The policy towards England and Scotland

This relaxation gave the government room to maneuver to the west. After Magnus lagabætir had sold the Shetland Islands and the Isle of Man to the Scottish king in the Peace of Perth in 1266, the suspension of payments from Scotland after 1270 led to tensions in the Norwegian-Scottish relationship. Erik's marriage to the Scottish princess Margrete was supposed to improve conditions in the North Sea area, especially since the princess received the considerable dowry of 14,000 marks sterling, half of which was in cash in four installments between 1281 and 1284, the other half through income from Scottish goods Marriage brought in. More important, however, was the provision in the marriage contract of 1281 in Roxburgh that the children from this marriage should receive full inheritance rights to the Scottish throne if their father, Alexander III. should perish without a legitimate heir. Should King Erik fail to ratify the treaty when he was of legal age, a contractual penalty of £ 100,000, payable in Berwick, and the loss of the Orkneys were foreseen. Should the Scottish side fail to honor the treaty, £ 100,000 would have to be paid in Bergen. In return, Scotland provided the Isle of Man as security. In addition, both sides held hostages until the king came of age. From the Norwegian side, they included Vidkunn Erlingsson and his brother Bjarne Erlingsson . The Scots made up 12 nobles.

That happened in 1286. Erik's only child from his marriage was Margaret , who was to inherit the Scottish throne. In November 1289 the Scottish government gave its approval. At the same time, the English King Edward I planned a marriage between his son and heir to the throne, Prince Edward, with Margrete, which should secure the English supremacy in Scotland. In July 1290, the marriage contract between Prince Eduard and Margrete was sealed. In the autumn of 1290 the seven-year-old Margrete, now Queen of Scotland, was supposed to go to her new kingdom. But she died en route in the Orkneys.

After Margrete's death, King Erik tried to claim the Scottish throne for himself with legal arguments. But he did not succeed. The throne was bestowed on John Balliol in 1292 . Erik had to be content with financial severance payments, which concerned the dowry for his wife and other compensation payments. The judge in this matter was the English King Edward I. Since he did not support the Norwegian claims towards John Balliol either, the situation between Norway and England became more complicated. So far, the peace treaty of 1269 between England and Norway had formed the basis for the friendly Norwegian foreign policy towards England. It was therefore a break with this foreign policy when the Norwegian government through Audun Hugleiksson entered into an alliance with England's archenemy France in Paris in the autumn of 1295. Audun promised King Philip the Fair military support of Norway in his war against England on a scale that was technically impossible, for £ 30,000, of which he took £ 6,000 as a deposit. France's more important consideration was to put pressure on the Scottish king to resume the outstanding payments to Norway. This alliance did not have any profound effects on the Norwegian-English relationship, even if it was not as close as it used to be. The Norwegian aid was not called upon because the Franco-English war lost its intensity and was ended by an armistice in 1297.

All in all, the Norwegian government's foreign policy in King Erik's time was not very successful. The payments due to the Kalmar Peace of 1285 and the armaments expenditure put a heavy strain on the state budget.

Domestic politics

Despite the abundant source material, there is little evidence of his own government goals. He was just 12 years old when he became king. Two years later he became a father and a widower at the age of 15. In the same year, 1283, he fell from his horse, became partially handicapped and sickly to the extent that he apparently stayed out of day-to-day political affairs for longer periods of time. Overall, his growing up was shaped by the dependence on others, especially the "Royal Council". His intellectual abilities were also insufficient to give the “Royal Council” its own line. During his reign, it was mainly the nobles in the Reichsrat Audun Hugleiksson and Bjarne Erlingsson who actually determined imperial politics. But the council made it a point to act not in its own name but in the name of the king. This was particularly evident when Lodin Lepp was sent to Iceland in 1281 to have the Jónsbók code adopted there . The Icelanders wanted some changes, which Lodin Lepp rejected with reference to the exclusive legislative competence of the king. The previous legislative competence of the Ting Assembly, here the Althings , has been switched off for the future. The Ting meeting only served to publish the laws that had already been passed. The king enacted the laws with the assistance of the royal council (“med gode menns råd”). The last old-style Ting meeting took place in 1302 when a new succession was adopted.

In the Norwegian folk tradition, a poem "Kong Eirik og Hugaljod" with 34 stanzas is passed down, the majority of which is said to have been written in the 14th century and probably arose in connection with King Eirik's wedding with Margrete.

See also

• Family tree of the Kings of Scotland
• History of Norway
• Norway in the Christian Middle Ages

literature

• Narve Bjørgo: Eirik 2 Magnusson . In: Norsk biografisk leksikon ; accessed March 1, 2011.
• Knut Helle: Under kirke og kongemagt 1130–1350. In: Aschehougs Norges historie , Volume 3. Oslo 1995.
• Gustav Storm (ed.): Islandske Annaler indtil 1578 . Christiania 1888. Reprint 1977, ISBN 82-7061-192-1

Individual evidence

The article is essentially taken from the Norsk biografisk leksikon . Other information is specially marked.

1. ↑ Annales Roseniani and Annales regii for the year 1268.
2. ↑ Lögmanns annáll for the year 1299: "Θ herra Eirikr Noregs kongr Magnus son .vj ^ta jdus julij." (Would be July 10th); Gottskálks annálar : "Θ Eirekr kongr iij idus julij ..." (would be July 13th); Flatey-annálar : “andadiz Eirekr Noregs kongr Magnusson .vj. idus julij “; Oddveria annáll : "Ano 1299 bitaladi Eirekur Noregz kongur Magnus son syna natturliga skulld 6 jdus julij." (Would be both July 10th). Bjørgo in Norsk biografisk leksikon has joined Gottskálks annálar . He arguably considers her the more reliable source.
3. ↑ Annales vetustissimi for the year 1281.
4. ↑ Annales Reseniani to the year 1293. She was the daughter of Robert Bruce 5th Lord Annandale (1210-1295) and later unsuccessful pretender to the throne of Scotland.
5. ↑ Helle (1995) p. 170.
6. ^ R. Keyser, CR Unger: Barlaams og Josaphats saga . Christiania 1851. p. XIV fn. 2.
7. ↑ Annales vetustissimi and Annales regii for the year 1273.
8. ^ Annales regii for the year 1280.
9. ^ Skálholt's annals for the year 1280.
10. ↑ Announcement of Archbishop Jon's successor, Archbishop Jørund, of March 12, 1291.
11. ↑ Annales vetustissimi for the year 1282. For the above, otherwise Helle (1995) p. 206.
12. ↑ This emerges from a letter from Pope Martin IV. Of March 4, 1282 to the king, in which he demands the lifting of the ban. This demand repeated Pope Honorius IV. With writing by 5 January 1286.
13. ↑ Helle (1995) p. 207.
14. ↑ Rudolpf Keyser: Den norske Kirkes Historie under Katholicismen Vol. 2. Christiania 1858. S. 47. f. The Icelandic annals do not mention the disease.
15. ↑ ^{a b} Helle (1995) p. 203.
16. ↑ Helle (1995) p. 204.
17. ↑ Annales regii for the year 1289; about the year 1290: Erik set fire to Langeland , Svendborg on Fyn and Falster .
18. ↑ It was about the estates Rostimay in the diocese of Moray and in the district of Banff , Balhelvie in the vicecomitatus of Aberdeen and Bathgate og Rathin in the vicecounty of Edinburgh . The income was estimated at 700 marks sterling annually. If this is not enough, Minnemorth's income should still be used. Regesta Norvegica . Volume, 2 No. 677.
19. ↑ Regesta Norvegica vol. 2 no. 275. The contract is printed in Latin in Diplomatarium Norvegicum vol. 19 no.
20. ↑ He brought a lawsuit in England because payments had ceased in 1289. It was negotiated by Edward I in Parliament in Berwick-upon-Tweed . The Scottish government (Queen Margrete had not yet come to Scotland from Norway) was sentenced to pay the outstanding sums of the goods. Whether there was still more to be shot from Minnemorth was reserved for further investigation. Judgment v. June 2, 1292 Diplomatarium Norvegicum Volume 19, No. 377 (Latin).
21. ^ Bjørgo in Norsk biografisk leksikon . For the following Helle p. 208.
22. ↑ Helle (1995) p. 208 f.

predecessor	Office	successor
Magnus VI.	King of Norway 1280–1299	Håkon V.