Tønsberg Fortress is a fortress located in
Tønsbergis a town and municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Tønsberg.The town of Tønsberg was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838...
,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
. Tønsberg was an important trading center, and was defended by the
fortressNorwegian Fortresses or fortifications have been constructed from some of the earliest recorded periods, down through the 20th century. The geography and topography of glacially carved, mountainous Norway constrain both the sea and the land routes which an aggresser must follow...
for over 700 years.
In the 1200s, king
Haakon HaakonsonHaakon Haakonsson , also called Haakon the Old, was king of Norway from 1217 to 1263. Under his rule, medieval Norway reached its peak....
set up a castle, Tunsberghus, Tunsberg or Tønsberg Fortress at the location of the modern Tønsberg municipality. It was located at what was formerly one of the most important harbors in Norway. According to
Snorri SturlusonSnorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
Tønsberg was founded before the Battle in
HafrsfjordHafrsfjord is a bay located in the municipalities of Stavanger and Sola in Norway, stretching 9 kilometres.Hafrsfjord is also a neighbourhood in the borough Madla in Stavanger city...
.
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Tønsberg Fortress is a fortress located in
Tønsbergis a town and municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Tønsberg.The town of Tønsberg was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838...
,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
. Tønsberg was an important trading center, and was defended by the
fortressNorwegian Fortresses or fortifications have been constructed from some of the earliest recorded periods, down through the 20th century. The geography and topography of glacially carved, mountainous Norway constrain both the sea and the land routes which an aggresser must follow...
for over 700 years.
In the 1200s, king
Haakon HaakonsonHaakon Haakonsson , also called Haakon the Old, was king of Norway from 1217 to 1263. Under his rule, medieval Norway reached its peak....
set up a castle, Tunsberghus, Tunsberg or Tønsberg Fortress at the location of the modern Tønsberg municipality. It was located at what was formerly one of the most important harbors in Norway. According to
Snorri SturlusonSnorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
Tønsberg was founded before the Battle in
HafrsfjordHafrsfjord is a bay located in the municipalities of Stavanger and Sola in Norway, stretching 9 kilometres.Hafrsfjord is also a neighbourhood in the borough Madla in Stavanger city...
. This makes Tønsberg the oldest Norwegian town, founded in 871, and one of the oldest recorded fortified locations in Norway.
Only a few ruins of the fortress are now left. The modern-day tower standing on the hill, was raised in 1888 as a memorial of the historic fortress.
History
- 871 - The commercial town of Tunsberg existed. It served as a stronghold for the Ynglings, who first came to power in Vestfold
is a county in Norway, bordering Buskerud and Telemark. The county administration is in Tønsberg.Vestfold is located west of the Oslofjord, as the name indicates. It includes many smaller, but well-known towns in Norway, such as Larvik, Sandefjord, Tønsberg and Horten. The river Numedalslågen runs...
in this period.
- 1000s - The commercial town and fortress at Tunsberg, on the Oslofjord
The Oslofjord is a bay in the south-east of Norway, stretching from an imaginary line between the Torbjørnskjær and Færder lighthouses and down to Langesund in the south to Oslo in the north. The bay is divided into the inner and outer Oslofjord at the point of the 17 km long and narrow...
outdistanced SkiringssalSkiringssal is the name of an area situated in the Norwegian municipalities of Larvik and Sandefjord, in the southern region of the county of Vestfold. Kaupang, the first known Norwegian trading outpost, was created at Skiringssal in the early 9th century and disappeared 930...
as a trading center.
- 1201 - Sverre Sigurdsson, king of Norway from 1177-1202, was attacked in Oslo
is the capital and largest city in Norway. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the town was largely destroyed by a fire in 1624. The Danish–Norwegian king Christian IV rebuilt the city as Christiania . Oslo, then an alternative name, became official again in 1925...
by combined forces from the Opplands, VikenViken or the Wick is a historical district surrounding the Oslofjord in southeastern Norway. The cultural hub is centred in Oslo, but the capital of the region was formerly at Borre. It comprises the historical provinces of Vestfold, Østfold, Ranrike, Vingulmark and Båhuslen...
, Telemarkis a county in Norway, bordering Vestfold, Buskerud, Hordaland, Rogaland and Aust-Agder. The county administration is in Skien. Until 1919 the county was known as Bratsberg amt.-Location:...
and Tunsberg. Although they outnumbered Sverre's forces, they were defeated by Sverre’s superior tactics. One of their ablest leaders, Reidar Sendeman, took refuge in the heights of Tunsberg fjell. In September of 1201, Sverre lay siege with a force of 1000 men, forcing their surrender after 5 months. Unfortunately for Sverre, he took ill in the siege and returned to Bergen only to die later in 1202.
- 1253 - Haakon Haakonsson
Haakon Haakonsson , also called Haakon the Old, was king of Norway from 1217 to 1263. Under his rule, medieval Norway reached its peak....
, king 1217-1263, constructed a castellated wall around the mountain and provided support buildings within the fortification.
- 1253 - Successfully resisted attack by Danish
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; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
forces.
- 1261 - Magnus Lagabøter
Magnus Lagabøte or Magnus Håkonsson , was king of Norway from 1263 until 1280.-Early life:...
, king of Norway 1263-1280, brought his bride Ingeborg of Denmark to live in the castle.
- 1319 - Haakon V Magnusson
Haakon V Magnusson was king of Norway from 1299 until 1319. He was married to Eufemia of Rügen, and father to Ingeborg Håkonsdotter who married duke Eric Magnusson of Sweden. He is considered to be the last Norwegian king in the Fairhair dynasty.He was the younger surviving son of Magnus the...
, king 1299-1319, the last of Haralds-ætten, lay ill and died at Tønsberghus.
- 1335 - Magnus Eriksson, king from 1319-1374, was wedded here to Blanche of Namur, who received the castle as a gift from her husband.
- 1387 - When the castles were no longer occupied by Norwegian royalty, the most important lords were the governors of the four chief Norwegian fortresses, Tønsberghus, Akershus
is a county in Norway, bordering Hedmark, Oppland, Buskerud, Oslo and Østfold; it has also a short border with Sweden . Akershus is the second largest county by population after Oslo, with more than half a million inhabitants. The county is named after Akershus Fortress...
, Båhus, and BergenhusBergenhus is a borough of the city of Bergen, Norway. Named after the Bergenhus fortress, it makes up the city centre and the neighborhoods immediately surrounding it, such as Sandviken and Kalfaret, as well as the mountains to the north and east of the city centre....
.
- 1503 As the Kalmar Union
The Kalmar Union is a historiographical term meaning a series of personal unions that united the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway , and Sweden under a single monarch, though intermittently and with a population less than 3,000,000.The countries had not...
collapsed, Norwegian attempts to rebel were suppressed by Danish forces. The Tunsberghus fortress was destroyed by Swedish soldiers and disloyal local peasants.