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and Magnus Sigurdssøn; between Sigurd Slembedegn, who claimed
to be a brother of Harald, and Ingi and Sigurd Munn, sons of
Harald; and afterwards between Ingi and Haakon Herdebred, a
son of Sigurd Munn. All these pretenders to the throne perished
in the course of this civil war. Ingi was defeated and slain by
Haakon in 1161 , whereupon his partisans elected as their king
Magnus Erlingssøn, who was the son of a daughter of Sigurd
Jorsala-farer. Haakon in his turn having fallen in battle, his adherents
endeavoured to find a successor, but Erling, the father of Magnus,
whose title was defective, succeeded in obtaining the snpport of
Denmark by the cession of Vigen, and also that of the church.
Meanwhile the church had iirmly established her power in the
north. At first the sees of Sweden and Xorway had been under
the jurisdiction of the archbishops of Hamburg and Bremen , but
in 1103 an archiepiscopal see was erected at Lund in Skåne. The
Norwegians, however, desiring an archbishop of their own, Pope
Eugene II. sent Cardinal Nicholas Breakespeare to Norway for the
purpose of erecting a new archbishopric there, and at the same
time a fifth bishopric was erected at Hamar. The new
archbishop’s jurisdiction also extended over the sees of Iceland,
Greenland, the Faroes, the Orkneys, the Hebrides, and the Isle of Man,
and his headquarters were established at Throndhjem. In 1164
Erling Jarl induced Archbishop Eystein to crown his son Magnus,
a ceremony which had never yet taken place in Norway, and at
the same time he engaged to make large concessions to the church,
including a right to a voice in the election of future kings.
Supported by the church, personally popular, and a meritorious
administrator, Magnus had at first no difficulty in maintaining
his position, but his title and the high privileges he had accorded
to the church did not long remain unchallenged.
After several insurrections against Magnus had been quelled,
there arose the formidable party of the Birkebeiner (‘birch-legs’, so
called from the bark of the birch which they used to protect their
feet), who in 1177 chose as their chief Sverre, a natural son of
Sigurd Munn, who had been brought up as a priest, and who soon
distinguished himself by his energy and prudence. In 1179 Erling
was defeated and slain by Sverre at Nidaros, and in 1184 his son
Magnus met the same fate in the naval battle of Fimreite in the Sogn
district. Sverre’s right to the crown , however, was immediately
challenged by new pretenders, and he incurred the bitter hostility
of the church by ignoring the concessions granted to it by Magnus.
In 1190 Archbishop Eric, Eystein’s successor fled the country, and
the king and his followers were excommunicated; but, though
severely harassed by several hostile parties, particularly the Bagler
(the episcopal party, from Bagall, ’baculus’, a pastoral staff). Sverre
died unconquered in 1202. He was succeeded by his son Haakon
(d. 1204), by Guttorm Sigurdssøn (d. 1204), and by Inge Baardssøn
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