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Haakon III of Norway

 

 
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Haakon III of Norway
 
 
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Håkon III (1182–1 January 1204), (Norwegian
Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic languages language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. It is also spoken as a second language among Norwegian-Americans in the United States of America, especially in the central northern states....
 Håkon Sverresson, Old Norse
Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic languages that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
 Hákon Sverrisson) was king of Norway from 1202–1204.

as born as the second illegitimate son of the future king Sverre
Sverre of Norway

Sverre Sigurdsson was king of Norway from 1184 to 1202. He married Margaret of Sweden, Queen of Norway, the daughter of the Swedish king Eric IX of Sweden, by whom he had the daughter Kristina of Norway....
, then a Faroese
Faroe Islands

The Faroe Islands or Faeroe Islands or simply Faroe or Faeroes are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately half way between Scotland and Iceland....
 adventurer, by his concubine Astrid Roesdatter, at some point in the 1170s. This was during the Norwegian civil wars.

The civil wars period
Civil war era in Norway

The Civil war era of Norway history is a term used for the period between 1130 and 1240 in the history of Norway. During this time, a series of civil wars were fought between rival kings and pretenders to the throne of Norway....
 of Norwegian history
History of Norway

From around the time of the Roman Empire until about 800 AD, many stone inscriptions can be found, written in Runes. Apparently, the small kingdoms developed during these centuries....
 lasted from 1130 to 1240.






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Håkon III (1182–1 January 1204), (Norwegian
Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic languages language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. It is also spoken as a second language among Norwegian-Americans in the United States of America, especially in the central northern states....
 Håkon Sverresson, Old Norse
Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic languages that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
 Hákon Sverrisson) was king of Norway from 1202–1204.

Biography

He was born as the second illegitimate son of the future king Sverre
Sverre of Norway

Sverre Sigurdsson was king of Norway from 1184 to 1202. He married Margaret of Sweden, Queen of Norway, the daughter of the Swedish king Eric IX of Sweden, by whom he had the daughter Kristina of Norway....
, then a Faroese
Faroe Islands

The Faroe Islands or Faeroe Islands or simply Faroe or Faeroes are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately half way between Scotland and Iceland....
 adventurer, by his concubine Astrid Roesdatter, at some point in the 1170s. This was during the Norwegian civil wars.

The civil wars period
Civil war era in Norway

The Civil war era of Norway history is a term used for the period between 1130 and 1240 in the history of Norway. During this time, a series of civil wars were fought between rival kings and pretenders to the throne of Norway....
 of Norwegian history
History of Norway

From around the time of the Roman Empire until about 800 AD, many stone inscriptions can be found, written in Runes. Apparently, the small kingdoms developed during these centuries....
 lasted from 1130 to 1240. During this period there were several interlocked conflicts of varying scale and intensity. The background for these conflicts were the unclear Norwegian succession laws, social conditions and the struggle between different aristocratic parties and between Church and King. There were then two main parties, firstly known by varying names or no names at all, but finally condensed into the parties of Bagler
Bagler

The Bagli Party or Bagler was a faction or party during the Civil war era in Norway. It was formed in Sk?ne, then part of Denmark, in 1196 around the pretender Inge Magnusson to depose king Sverre Sigurdsson....
 and Birkebeiner
Birkebeiner

The Birkebein Party or Birkebeinar was the name for a rebellious party in Norway, formed in 1174 around the pretender Eystein Meyla. The name has its origins in propaganda from the opposing party that the rebels were so poor that they made their shoes of birch bark....
. The rallying point regularly was a royal son, who was set up as the leader of the party in question, to oppose the rule of king from the contesting party. Sverre and Håkon were leaders of the Birkebeiner party.

Håkon is first mentioned as one of the leaders of his father's armies in a battle against the Bagler in Oslo
Oslo

is the Capital and largest List of cities in Norway in Norway.Metropolitan Oslo or the Greater Oslo Region makes up the third largest urban area in Scandinavia after Metropolitan Stockholm and Metropolitan Copenhagen....
 in 1197. Subsequently he is mentioned several times as taking part in his father's wars against the Bagler. On his deathbed his father, who died on 9 March 1202, declared that he had no other son alive than Håkon. He also wrote a letter to Håkon advising him to settle the longstanding dispute with the church. When the news of Sverre's death reached Håkon and the Birkebeiner assembled in Nidaros
Nidaros

Nidaros was the old name of Trondheim , a city of Norway, in the Middle Ages. Nidaros was Northern Europe's most important Christian pilgrimage site during this time, the pilgrims' goal being the Christ Church, also known as the Nidaros Cathedral, established as the seat of the archdiocese of all Norway in 1152 by Pope Adrian IV, who later be...
, Håkon was first taken as chieftain by the Birkebeiner. The same spring he was taken as king at the thing
Thing (assembly)

File:Germanische-ratsversammlung 1-1250x715.jpgA thing or ting was the governing assembly in Germanic tribes societies, made up of the free people of the community and presided by lawspeakers....
 in Nidaros.

The same spring the Norwegian bishops, who had been in exile in Sweden
Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
 and Denmark
Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries....
 and had supported the Bagler, returned to Norway and made a settlement with Håkon. It seems likely that he gave in to most of their demands. Norway was released from the interdict
Interdict (Roman Catholic Church)

In the Roman Catholic Church, the word interdict usually refers to an ecclesiastical penalty. Interdicts may be real, local or personal....
 it had been placed under during the reign of Sverre. Håkon is said to have been on friendly terms with the farmers and the common people, and the Bagler party soon lost much of its support. In the autumn of 1202, the Bagler king Inge Magnusson
Inge Magnusson

Inge Magnusson or Inge Baglar-king, was from 1196 to 1202 Bagler pretender to the Norwegian throne. He was claimed to be a bastard son of king Magnus V of Norway Erlingsson....
 was killed by the local farmers of Oppland
Oppland

is a Counties of Norway in Norway, bordering S?r-Tr?ndelag, M?re og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The county administration is in Lillehammer....
 and the Bagler party in Norway was dissolved. A new Bagler pretender, Erling Steinvegg
Erling Steinvegg

Erling Magnusson Steinvegg or Erlingr Magn?sson Steinveggr was the candidate of the Bagler to the Norwegian throne from 1204 to 1207. They believed him to be a son of king Magnus V of Norway Erlingsson....
, soon appeared in Denmark, but declined to renew the fighting, as he saw little chance of succeeding against Håkon. Håkon was thus the undisputed ruler of the country.

Håkon appears to have had a troubled relationship with his father's queen, Margareta Eriksdotter. After Sverre's death, Margareta attempted to return to her native Sweden with her daughter by Sverre, Kristina. Håkon's men forcibly separated her from her daughter, as he wanted to keep her at his court. Subsequently, Margareta seemingly settled with Håkon and went to his court. During Christmas in 1203, Håkon fell ill after a bloodletting
Bloodletting

Bloodletting is the withdrawal of often considerable quantities of blood from a patient in the belief that this would cure or prevent a great many illnesses and diseases....
, and on 1 January 1204 he died. His death was suspected as poisoning and his stepmother Margareta was suspected of the crime. In the end she had one of her men undergo a trial by ordeal
Trial by ordeal

Trial by ordeal is a judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused is determined by subjecting them to a painful task. If either the task is completed without injury, or the injuries sustained are healed quickly, the accused is considered innocent....
 on her behalf to prove her innocence, but the man was badly burned. This was taken as proof of her guilt, and she had to flee back to Sweden.

Håkon Sverresson was not married, and at his death no heirs were known. He was therefore succeeded by his 4-year-old nephew Guttorm Sigurdsson
Guttorm of Norway

Guttorm Sigurdsson, , , was king of Norway in 1204. He was the son of Sigurd Lavard, and grandson of king Sverre of Norway.The civil war era in Norway of History of Norway lasted from 1130 to 1240....
. But after his death a woman, Inga of Varteig, whom Håkon had taken as a concubine for a time in 1203, appeared at the Birkebeiner court with an infant son who she claimed was Håkon's son. The child had been born in present-day Østfold
Østfold

is a Counties of Norway in southeastern Norway, bordering Akershus and southwestern Sweden , while Buskerud and Vestfold is on the other side of Viken....
 after the death of the putative father. The boy, named Håkon after his father, later became king Håkon IV
Haakon IV of Norway

Haakon Haakonsson , also called Haakon the Old, was List of Norwegian monarchs of Norway from 1217 to 1263. Under his rule, medieval Norway reached its peak....
. In the summer of 1218, Inga underwent a successful trial by ordeal
Trial by ordeal

Trial by ordeal is a judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused is determined by subjecting them to a painful task. If either the task is completed without injury, or the injuries sustained are healed quickly, the accused is considered innocent....
 (bore iron) in Bergen to show the paternity of her son.

During Håkon's brief reign, he managed to release Norway from the church's interdict, and end the civil wars, at least for a time. Whether the peace would have lasted if he had been allowed to live is impossible to say. As it turned out, his early death sparked a renewal of the fighting, as the bagler pretender Erling Steinvegg in a matter of months gathered an army and went to Norway to claim the throne.

Håkon was buried in the old cathedral in Bergen. The cathedral was demolished in 1531, and the site is today marked by a memorial.

Our main sources to Håkon's life are Sverris saga
Sverris saga

Sverris saga is a Norse saga about King Sverre Sigurdsson of Norway and is the main source for this period of History of Norway. As the foreword tells us, the saga in its final form is a compilation of previous books....
 and the Bagler sagas
Bagler sagas

The Bagler Sagas are kings' sagas relating to events in Norway from 1202 to 1217. They are our main source to events in Norway in this period. There are two versions, one shorter and one longer, which are in modern editions usually printed as one saga....
, both written shortly after the events, in the 13th century.