Erling Vidkunnsson

Erling Vidkunnsson , also Vidkunsson, (* probably 1292 or 1293; † 1355 ) was King Magnus Eiriksson's underage until 1332 Norwegian imperial administrator .

family

He came from the powerful Bjarkøya chiefs , the Bjarkøyætt . He was the son of the knight Vidkunn Erlingsson († 1302), a member of the Imperial Council both under Erik II and under his successor Håkon V , and his wife Gyrid Andresdatter († 1323). She came from the powerful Ståreims family from Nordfjord, related to the royal family, and the Tornberg family in eastern Norway.

He was married to Elin Toresdatter (mentioned 1329-1347), the daughter of Chancellor Tore Håkonsson († 1317) and his wife Ingebjørg Erlingsdatter († 1315). He was able to trace his family back to the powerful Arnmødlinger chieftains in Giske ( Sunnmøre ). So he was associated with the most powerful families in the country.

Erling was also a member of the Reichsrat. He was a knight (1316), judge ( Lagmann ) and Sysselmann . He inherited both the Bjarkøy lands and Giske's possessions. He also owned goods from the Ståreims family and from the Tornberg family in eastern Norway. He also had properties on Orkney's. He also bought goods, so that he united about 7% of the aristocratic property in Norway. He was Norway's largest private landowner in his day.

Political Effectiveness

After Håkon V's death (1319), he was the first to sign the Oslo Treaty on personal union with Sweden under his grandson Magnus II.

The biggest leap in his career came in 1323 when the bishops and royal entourage elected him in Oslo as chairman of the imperial council and imperial administrator based on the Swedish model. This was intended to keep Magnus V. Ingeborg's daughter away from the government until her underage son Magnus was of legal age. He surrounded himself with a small circle of permanent advisors and involved the Reichsrat in important matters. He resided mostly in mountains. The previously tense relationship with Denmark normalized during his tenure. On the other hand, the Swedish expansion into the Finnish bay led to tensions with the principality of Novgorod and in 1323 to the Russian invasion of northern Norway, during which its headquarters in Bjørkøy was burned down. His efforts to get financial support from the church to defend against Finns, Russians and Karelians had little success with the Norwegian episcopate, so he instead entered into negotiations that led to a peace with Novgorod in 1326. He also turned to the Pope for support and received half of the six-decade that had been imposed on the Norwegian clergy for a crusade against the Turks. That was enough to reorganize the Norwegian budget and prevented a special tax on the Norwegian population.

Together with the secular members of the Imperial Council, he took a firm stance against ecclesiastical attempts to improve their legal situation: in a royal decree of 1327, he enforced the Christian law of Magnus Lagabætir and Archbishop Jon Raude as the basis for the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Later changes in the law in favor of the church were repealed, for example the later tithe regulation of 1277. In Bergen, feudal farmers refused to pay tithes from their income from the leasing to the church. This led to a sharp conflict with the Bishop of Bergen Audfinn Sigurdsson , as the royal government supported these farmers.

He also regulated the Icelandic trade and at the end of his term of office also reorganized society in Bergen. In 1330 he gave the German shoemakers in Bergen a comprehensive privilege with their own jurisdiction, but at the same time pulled them into military service. The wintering of the Hanseatic people in Bergen with their intermediate and retail trade was restricted in 1331.

Sometime between the decree of 1331 and the first public appearance of King Magnus Eriksson , he lost the office of administrator. Icelandic annals report the year 1333 that he defended a castle in Tønsberg against King Magnus. But he surrendered and was allowed to keep his property. The reason for the uprising is not known. But it is believed that it is related to the edict of King Magnus of 1332, according to which only feudal men and chiefs were allowed to have oath-sworn followers. It could also be that he was disappointed in the hope that the new king would endow him with larger possessions. After his unsuccessful uprising in 1333, he is mentioned in various parts of Norway, mainly in Giske, where he performed administrative tasks and also did lucrative trade. He also had a ship on the route to Iceland.

But he remained the highest ranking secular representative in the Norwegian Imperial Council. He had a large network of relationships. He had several daughters whom he married to important figures in the empire. After the great epidemic in 1349/1350, Erling made a pilgrimage to Rome. On the way home he was captured in England, but released by the new Archbishop Olav.

literature

This article is based on the article in Norsk biografisk leksikon . Other information is shown separately.

• Knut Helle: "Erling Vidkunnsson". In: Norsk biografisk Leksikon .

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Annales Regii" in: Gustav Storm (ed.): Islandske Annaler indtil 1578 Christiania 1888. P. 76–155, 154 and "Gottskalks Annaler" in: Islandske Annaler indtil 1578 P. 297–378, 348.

See also

• Norway in the Christian Middle Ages