Erling Steinvegg

Erling Steinvegg († 1207 in Tønsberg ) buried in the St. Olav monastery church in Tønsberg was the Norwegian king of the Bagler Party . His parents are not known for certain. It is also not known whether he was married, only that he was the father of Sigurd Ribbung (1203-1226).

The sources about his life are two versions of the Bagler saga, one by the Baglers, a longer one by the Birkebeiners and the Håkon Håkonssons saga also written by the Birkebeiners.

In the autumn of 1203 a man appeared at the Skanör market in Skanör who called himself Erling and claimed to be the son of King Magnus Erlingsson , precisely the Erling whom the Swedish King Knut Eriksson had earlier captured at King Sverre's instigation and in the "Steinveggen" (stone tower) on the island of Visingsö . He was able to escape from there. That led to his nickname "Steinvegg". The sources close to the Birkebeinern claim, however, that there is evidence that the real Erling was slain from Steinvegg after his escape.

But neither he nor his son Sigurd Ribbung succeeded in preventing the Birkebeiner from winning the final victory in the fight for rule in Norway.

In 1203 there were many Norwegians at the Schonenmarkt, including many former baglers who had left Norway after Håkon Sverresson was proclaimed king in 1202 . They wanted to raise Erling to the rival king, but Erling found it unfavorable to face the victorious King Håkon and instead moved to Copenhagen, where he received the support of Waldemar II , who hoped to regain the former sovereignty over the area around the Oslofjord .

When King Håkon Sverreson suddenly died in the first days of 1204 and some birch- leg chiefs gathered around the minor King Guttorm Sigurdsson and ruled for him, some leading baglers went to Erling Steinvegg in Copenhagen. They put together a troop and moved to the Oslofjord, where they were well received by the population. King Waldemar's support for this company is considered certain. Bishop Nikolas Arnason , one of the Baglers , who had initially been an opponent of Erling's candidacy for the throne because he would have preferred to see his nephew, the later Bagler King Philipp Simonsson, as king, now supported Erling against the promise that Philipp would become Jarl . This happened in 1204 when King Waldemar entered the Oslofjord with over 300 ships. After Erling had proven his royal parentage with the iron sample in the presence of the Danish king , he received 35 ships from him. Then he was proclaimed king with the support of the army on Haugating near Tønsberg and shortly afterwards further east on Borgarting. Although the Bagler saga, the main source of Erling's fate, is silent about it, it can be assumed that he could only obtain the necessary support from Waldemar in return for his suzerainty over the area around the Oslofjord. Danish sources confirm that he took the feudal oath to Waldemar.

Although the Birkebeiner were militarily superior due to their bases in Trøndelag and Vestlandet , the baglers succeeded in launching victorious campaigns to Vestlandet in 1204 and even as far as Trøndelag in the years thereafter, so that Erling was proclaimed king on the Øyrating near Trondheim in 1205 has been.

Erling fell ill on New Year 1207 and died soon after in Tønsberg. There he was buried on the north wall of the St. Olav monastery church.

Remarks

The article is essentially taken from the Norsk biografisk leksikon . Any other information is specifically identified.

1. ↑ Bagler and Birkebeiner were the main parties in the Norwegian civil war. For the Baglerkriege see the Baglerkriege .
2. ↑ Helle p. 71.

literature

• Knut Helle: Article “Erling Steinvegg” in Norsk biografisk leksikon , accessed on October 23, 2010.
• Knut Helle: Under kirke og kongemakt 1130-1350. Aschehougs Norges history. Vol. 3. Oslo 1995.

predecessor	Office	successor
Inge Magnusson	King of Norway ( Baglerkönig ) 1194–1207	Philipp Simonsson