Olaf Magnusson of Norway
Encyclopedia
Olaf Magnusson was king of Norway 1103–1115. He was the son of King Magnus Barefoot
Magnus III of Norway
Magnus Barefoot or Magnus III Olafsson was King of Norway from 1093 until 1103 and King of Mann and the Isles from 1099 until 1103.-Background:...

 and Sigrid, daughter of Sakse of Vik
Vik
Vik is a municipality in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center of Vik is the village of Vikøyri.-General information:...

.

Olaf became king together with his half-brothers Sigurd Jorsalfar
Sigurd I of Norway
Sigurd I Magnusson , also known as Sigurd the Crusader , was King of Norway from 1103 to 1130. His rule, together with his brother Eystein I of Norway , has been regarded by historians as a golden age for the medieval Kingdom of Norway...

 and Øystein Magnusson
Eystein I of Norway
Eystein I Magnusson was king of Norway from 1103 to 1123.-Biography:Eystein became king, together with his brothers Sigurd and Olaf, when his father Magnus Barefoot died in 1103...

 when his father Magnus Barefoot
Magnus III of Norway
Magnus Barefoot or Magnus III Olafsson was King of Norway from 1093 until 1103 and King of Mann and the Isles from 1099 until 1103.-Background:...

 died in 1103. He was king of Norway in twelve years, but did not like their brothers leave a lasting impression. Since he was still very young, his older brothers acted as regents for his part of the kingdom. In 1107, King Sigurd was to lead a Norwegian crusade in support to the newly established crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....

, returning to Norway in 1111. During this period, King Øystein served as regent for his brother, using his energy and willpower to create a strong and stable country.

In 1115, Olaf fell ill and died when he was only 17 years old. He was succeeded by his co-ruler brothers. His historical insignificance is shown by the fact that later historians, when constructing ordinals for Norwegian monarchs, left Olaf out from numbering - he would have been Olaf IV but that ordinal is used for Oluf Haakonsson who reigned over two and a half centuries later. Olav V of Norway
Olav V of Norway
Olav V was the king of Norway from 1957 until his death. A member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, Olav was born in the United Kingdom as the son of King Haakon VII of Norway and Queen Maud of Norway...

 (d. 1991), who clearly reigned using the official ordinal, would have been Olav VI, had this child co-king been numbered.

Ancestry

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