Sigurd Magnusson Slembe (died 12 November 1139) was a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 pretender

Pretender

A pretender is one who claims entitlement to an unavailable position of honour or rank. Most often it refers to a former monarch, or descendant thereof, whose throne is occupied or claimed by a rival, or has been abolished....

 to the throne. He was the subject of Sigurd Slembe, the historical drama written by the Norwegian playwright Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson was a Norwegian writer and the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. Bjørnson is considered as one of The Four Greats Norwegian writers; the others being Henrik Ibsen, Jonas Lie, and Alexander Kielland...

 in 1863.

Biography

Sigurd is commonly believed to have been born around 1100 in southern Norway and was said to have been raised by the priest Adalbrikt. His mother was apparently Thora Saxesdatter. Sigurd himself was consecrated to be a deacon. In Old Norse, his nickname slembi could be translated to mean "noisy", Slembidjákn would mean "noisy priest". Sigurd appeared before King Harald Gille claiming that he was an illegitimate son of the late King Magnus III of Norway

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:...

. He demanded his putative half-brother King Harald Gille, whose origin actually was quite similar, share power with him as co-kings.

Sigurd married Audhild Torleiv, the daughter of Thorleif Maddadsson. Sigurd had himself proclaimed king in 1135, but his claim was not recognized by King Harald Gille. In 1136, Sigurd arranged for Harald Gille to be killed in his sleep. As soon as Harald was dead, Sigurd had the previous King Magnus IV of Norway

Magnus IV of Norway

Magnus IV Sigurdsson , also known as Magnus the Blind, was King of Norway from 1130 to 1135 and again from 1137 to 1139. His period as king marked the beginning of the civil war era in Norway, which lasted until 1240....

, his putative nephew, reinstated as co-king. This was apparently in the hope of increased support and in order to secure his own position. Magnus had previously been imprisoned, blinded and mutilated by Harald. As Magnus was rather incapacitated, Sigurd claimed royal power in Magnus' name. However, Sigurd was convicted and outlawed for regicide

Regicide

The broad definition of regicide is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a monarch. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after a trial...

.

Sigurd Slembe and Magnus continued to find little support in Norway. King Eric II of Denmark

Eric II of Denmark

Eric II the Memorable was king of Denmark between 1134 and 1137. Eric was an illegitimate son of Eric I of Denmark, who ruled Denmark from 1095 to 1103. Eric the Memorable rebelled against his uncle Niels of Denmark, and was declared king in 1134. He punished his adversaries severely, and...

  (Erik II Emune) supported them for an unsuccessful campaign. On November 12, 1139, in the naval Battle of Holmengrå (Slaget ved Holmengrå) near Hvaler

Hvaler

Hvaler is a municipality that is a group of islands in the southwestern part of Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Skjærhalden, on the island of Kirkeøy. The only police station in the municipality is located in Skjærhalden...

 in Oslofjord

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 Danish supported forces of Magnus and Sigurd were put against supporters of King Inge I of Norway

Inge I of Norway

Inge Haraldsson was king of Norway from 1136 to 1161. Inge’s reign fell within the start of the period known in Norwegian history as the civil war era. He was never the sole ruler of the country. He is often known as Inge the Hunchback , because of his physical disability...

, who was still a child. Magnus was killed in the battle. Sigurd was betrayed, captured, imprisoned and executed.

Primary sources

The main sources for Sigurd and his era are the kings' sagas

Kings' sagas

The kings' sagas are Norse sagas which tell of the lives of Scandinavian kings. They were composed in the 12th to 14th centuries in Iceland and Norway....

 Heimskringla

Heimskringla

Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...

, Fagrskinna

Fagrskinna

Fagrskinna is one of the kings' sagas, written around 1220. It takes its name from one of the manuscripts in which it was preserved, Fagrskinna meaning 'Fair Leather', i.e., 'Fair Parchment'. Fagrskinna proper was destroyed by fire, but copies of it and another vellum have been preserved...

, and Morkinskinna

Morkinskinna

Morkinskinna is an Old Norse kings' saga, relating the history of Norwegian kings from approximately 1025 to 1157. The saga was written in Iceland around 1220, and has been preserved in a manuscript from around 1275....

. They in turn base their accounts on the now lost Hryggjarstykki

Hryggjarstykki

Hryggjarstykki is a lost kings' saga written in Old Norse in the mid-twelfth century and dealing with near-contemporary events. The author was Eiríkr Oddsson, an Icelander about whom little is known...

, whose author, Eiríkr Oddsson, either witnessed the events himself, or spoke to people who had.

Historical context

During the civil war period of Norwegian history (1130–1240), 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 church and king. There were then two main parties, firstly known by varying names or no names at all, but finally condensed into parties of Bagler

Bagler

The Bagli Party or Bagler was a faction or party during the Norwegian Civil Wars. The Bagler faction was made up principally of the Norwegian aristocracy, clergy and merchants....

 and Birkebeiner

Birkebeiner

The Birkebein Party or Birkebeinar was the name for a rebellious party in Norway, formed in 1174 around the pretender to the Norwegian throne, Eystein Meyla...

. The rallying point regularly was a royal son, who was set up as the head figure of the party in question, to oppose the rule of king from the contesting party.

Related sources

• Bagge, Sverre Society and Politics in Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla (Berkeley: University of California Press. 1991).

Ancestry