Oslo Oslo Norway

The Scandinavian tribal divisions of Norse, …

Oslo, situated on the small Akershus Peninsula at the head of Oslo Fjord, about sixty miles (ninety-seven kilometers) from the open sea, was already a village around the year 1000 with the St. Clement's Church and the cemetery .

According to Snorri's Heimskringla, the city was built in 1050 by King Harald Hardrada.

Subsequent archaeological excavations and research have established that Oslo had an urban structure as early as the end of the Viking Age.

A continuing conflict with the Archbishopric of Bremen had developed under Harald Hardrada concerning the archbishop's authority over the Norwegian church.

Olaf, in contrast, has fully recognized this authority fully.

Political considerations may be a sufficient explanation for the conciliatory attitude.

Olaf is also concerned with the church organization.

Until his time, bishops had formed part of the king's court and traveled with him around the country to take care of the ecclesiastical affairs while the king took care of worldly matters.

Under Olaf, the bishops have established fixed residence in Bergen, Oslo, and …

Sigurd has gone to Denmark also with a small army, and hereafter turns towards raiding the Norwegian coast.

Although Sigurd wins little support, he gains much loot from the raids, which after a while allows him to purchase troops in Denmark.

An attempted invasion of Norway by King Erik II of Denmark on behalf of Magnus IV, in which he manages to burn down Oslo, is unsuccessful.

Inge’s infirmity, according to the sagas Morkinskinna and Heimskringla, stemmed  from having been carried into battle by one of his guardians during a battle in 1137: “...his back was knotted into a hump, and the one foot was shorter than the other; and he was besides so infirm that he could scarcely walk as long as he lived.” (Heimskringla/Saga of Sigurd, Inge, and Eystein, the Sons of Harald/Of Sigurd Slembidjakn.)

The Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus offers the alternative explanation that he became a hunchback after having been dropped on the floor by a maid during infancy.

During the minority of Inge, Sigurd and Magnus, the country is ruled in peace by their guardians, prominent among whom is Inge’s mother, queen Ingiriðr.

Magnus, of whom little more is known, dies at some point in the 1140s.

A fourth, older brother, Eystein, comes to Norway in 1142 from Scotland, where he had grown up.

Harald Gille had acknowledged Eystein as a son before his death, and Eystein is therefore given a share of the kingdom.

The first construction on the Akershus Fortress, built to protect Christanstad, started around the late 1290s, by King Haakon V, replacing Tønsberg as one of the two most important Norwegian castles of the period (the other being Båhus).

It is constructed in response to an earlier attack on the city by the Norwegian nobleman, Earl Alv Erlingsson of Sarpsborg.

The first work on the royal fortress on Oslo’s small Akershus Peninsula had started around the late 1290s under King Håkon V, replacing Tønsberg as one of the two most important Norwegian castles of the period (the other being Båhus).

It had been constructed in response to an earlier attack on Oslo by the Norwegian nobleman Earl Alv Erlingsson of Sarpsborg.

The fortress is first used in battle in 1308, when it is besieged by the Swedish duke Erik of Södermanland, who later in the same year wins the Swedish throne.

The immediate proximity of the sea is a key feature, for naval power is a vital military force as the majority of Norwegian commerce in this period is by sea.

The fortress is strategically important for the capital, and therefore, Norway as well.

Whoever rules Akershus fortress rules Norway.

Haakon, born in 1340 (possibly in mid-August), most likely in Sweden, though the exact date and location of his birth remain unknown, is the younger son of Magnus Eriksson, king of Sweden and Norway, and Blanche of Namur.

His older brother Eric is a rival king of Sweden in opposition to his father between 1356 and 1359.

Haakon and his paternal family belong to the Swedish House of Bjelbo, which had succeeded the House of Eric in Sweden and the House of Sverre in Norway.

Haakon is a great-grandson of Haakon V of Norway through his only legitimate daughter, Ingeborg, and is considered an acceptable heir to the throne by the Norwegian nobility.

Another noteworthy ancestor of Haakon, through his paternal grandfather Eric Magnusson, Duke of Södermanland, is Magnus III of Sweden.

Haakon had been raised in Norway to prepare the young prince to later rule the kingdom in his own right.

During the early autumn of 1343, the most prominent members of the Norwegian Council of the Realm attended a meeting with Magnus at Varberg Castle.

Letters were issued throughout Norway and Sweden on August 15, 1343, stating that the King and the Council had decided to place Haakon on the throne of Norway.

Representatives of the cities and the general public had assembled barely a year later at Båhus Castle, where they hailed Haakon as their king and took the oath of perpetual fealty and servitude to him.

Though the meeting at Båhus Castle forged historic ties to the old elective monarchy in Norway, the acclamation documents created by the Council of the Realm stipulated that Haakon was to rule over only parts of Norway, and it was also carefully documented that the Norwegian Law of Succession would apply if he were to die leaving no legitimate son, thereby ensuring that the hereditary monarchy would be upheld.

The next in line to the Norwegian throne would then be his older brother Eric and his descendants, but the provision becomes moot when Eric dies in 1359.

The meetings at Varberg Castle in 1343 and at Båhus Castle in 1344 were later properly ratified in another meeting in the port city of Bergen as late as 1350.

Magnus had abdicated his Norwegian throne sometime between August 8 and 18 in 1355.

Haakon then ruled as the sole king in the kingdom, though his father continued to exercise control over Norway in the following years, albeit no longer in name.

The first documented event in which Haakon acted as sole king and ruler over his kingdom was on January 22, 1358, when he sent a letter of approval for the privileges in the capital city of Oslo.Norway in 1355 had actually been partitioned between Haakon and Magnus: Magnus had specifically requested the territories of Hålogaland and the Norwegian islands in the North Sea at the ratification meeting in Bergen in 1350.

Magnus additionally holds the territories of Tønsberg and Skien, and he is also the real ruler over the territories of Borgar and most of Bohuslän, which are held as personal fiefs by Queen Blanche.

Because of this, the realm of Magnus is centered in the southeast, up against the important south-Swedish countryside and the Swedish-held Scania province.

Olaf, the six-year-old son of Margaret of Denmark and King Haakon VI of Norway, had been elected king of Denmark in 1376 ; on his father’s death in 1380, he inherits the crown of Norway as well.

The twenty-three-year-old Margaret, however, wields the real power in both realms.

Norway and Denmark are thus united in a personal union and are to have the same king, with the exception of short interregnums, until 1814.

After Olaf, no Norwegian king will be born on Norwegian soil for more than five hundred and fifty years, until the birth of prince Harald in 1937.

…in Norway the Council of the Realm assumes royal authority, and an interregnum ensues.

No serious rival candidates to the Norwegian throne exist, but the Council is determined to demonstrate Norway's status as a sovereign kingdom.