Torvald Toresson

Torvald Toresson (* before 1265 , † after 1330 ) was a Norwegian knight and Sýslumaður .

His parents are unknown. In his first marriage he married Sigrid Olavsdatter (mentioned in 1292). Their parents are not known. In his second marriage he married Ragndid Jonsdatter, probably before 1310. She was the daughter of the royal feudal man Baron Jon Ivarsson Raud (mentioned in a document 1295-1312). He was the father of Herdis Torvaldsdatter (around 1310-1363).

Torvald Toresson is the first person in Shetland history to be known. He was the most powerful man of his time there.

He is first mentioned as residing in the Shetland Islands (Hjaltland) in 1289, when he was appointed Norwegian ambassador to negotiate with King Edward I of England over King Erik Magnusson's daughter Margrete , who was entitled to inheritance on Scotland's throne . It is widely believed that he was born in the Shetland Islands. But he married two Norwegian women one after the other, so it is entirely possible that he was an immigrant Norwegian. When he represented his first wife in a border dispute between their estate Eikeland in Kvinesdal and their neighbor Valthjof Þorkelsson in 1292 , he had a son Þorgil, who was apparently over 15 years old as a witness. This suggests that Torvald himself was born in the 1250s at the latest. Then he should have been around 80 years old when he was last mentioned in 1330 as living on the Shetland Islands.

Torvald accompanied King Erik and his brother Duke Håkon between 1289 and 1295 on at least one military campaign in the Danish waters and was one of the guarantors of the armistice with Denmark in the Hindsgavl Treaty. On July 17, 1309, he heads the list of knights who sealed the peace treaty of Håkon V in Copenhagen. With his second marriage he allied himself with the powerful Sudrheim family in Sørum in Romerike , which was also closely connected to King Håkon. With this he strengthened his social and political position in Norway.

Under Håkon Magnusson he was Sýslumaður on the Shetland Islands for a number of years. There he is mentioned in the oldest two original documents, a witness letter from 1299 and a judgment from 1307. In the letter from 1299 he claims the property tax for King Håkon and denies the accusation that he had part of the property tax from Papey ( today Papa Stour ), where he administered a ducal estate. In a letter of 1307 he testifies to a verdict of the Lagting in a process he and Mrs. Bjørg in Kollavåg (today Cullivoe on Yell ). She owed the king a large fine, which Torvald had to collect after two attempts at settlement had failed. The judgment confirmed the claim and proves that Torvald temporarily drove to Bergen and there delivered the royal income to the royal treasury. He also had connections with Munkeliv Monastery , which owned lands in the Shetland Islands.

As the most powerful man on the Shetland Islands, he also owned land there, but the extent of this is not known. Since he was called "dominus de Papey" (Lord of Papa Stour) in 1330, it can be assumed that the king gave him land there with the former ducal court as the center. This estate was later inherited by his daughter Herdis. The other farms on the Shetland Islands that were later owned by Herdis were certainly from Torvald.

No abuse of power is reported in contemporary sources. Only in the later legendary tradition is he portrayed as a robber and looter. On Papa Stour, the legend of the mighty "Lord Tirvil" still exists today, who used to settle disputes through a duel and who murdered his daughter's husband. This story was written in 1774. Thereafter Tirvil is said to have perished on a robbery voyage together with 11 sons when their ship hit a reef that was later called "Terwil's Baa".

Individual evidence

The article is essentially taken from the Norsk biografisk leksikon . Any other information is shown separately.

1. ^ Diplomatarium Norvegicum. Vol. 19, No. 328 .
2. ^ Diplomatarium Norvegicum. Vol. 1, No. 81 .
3. ^ Diplomatarium Norvegicum. Vol. 9, No. 82 .

literature

• Knut Helle: Torvald Toresson . In: Norsk biografisk leksikon . Retrieved September 4, 2017.