Nidaros

Who holds it

Name

Eirik Ivarsson

Title

Archbishop of Nidaros

Since

1188-89 (bishop of Stavanger from about 1170)

Confidence

high

In exile in Denmark since 1190, sheltered by Absalon at Lund, and blind. Celestine III backed him with a letter of 15 June 1194 and he excommunicated Sverre, who had himself crowned at Bergen on 29 June 1194 by Bishop Nicholas Arnesson of Oslo and other bishops. Innocent III laid Norway under interdict in October 1198 and accused Sverre of forging a papal letter. Eirik makes peace with Sverre's son after Sverre's death in 1202, resigns in 1205 and dies at Nidaros on 3 May 1213.

What it holds

• The cathedral precinct and the archbishop's residence at Nidaros, with St Olav's shrine (in the king's hands)
• The see's estates and rents in Trøndelag and elsewhere (seized by Sverre)
• The privileges of 1163-64: fines in silver value, trade privileges, protection of pilgrims
• The claim to an armed household (hird) of his own, one of the points Sverre disputed

How it was acquired

Endowed since the archbishopric was founded in 1152-53; Eystein's privileges from Magnus Erlingsson in 1163-64.

How things stand that morning

Occupied. The see's lands are in the king's hands, the archbishop is at Lund, and the interdict of October 1198 stands. The Baglers still hold out in Viken around Oslo.

Wealth

Land rents, tithes, fines and the pilgrim traffic to St Olav, now diverted to the crown or choked by the interdict.

Threats

• Sverre's seizure of the see's estates and revenues
• The interdict, which also cuts the church's own income where the king is obeyed

Advocates and rivals

King Sverre, excommunicated, rules Trøndelag and holds the see's property; his own bishops (Bergen and others) serve him under papal displeasure. The Baglers, the church party, are led in part by Bishop Nicholas of Oslo; Sverre crushed their fleet at Strindafjord on 18 June 1199 and Nicholas fled to Denmark.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 6 March 1200Sverre defeats a peasant army raised against him at Oslo, in the Bagler country of Viken.Depends on: The rising in Viken going ahead as it did. Stopped by: A settlement between Sverre and the church party, or the rising collapsing first.

Places of note

• Nidaros cathedral: Shrine of St Olav, with the archbishop's residence beside it

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Eirik's exile, the seizure of the see's property and the interdict are well attested (Store norske leksikon, Wikipedia). There is no territory to draw: only the see city is marked, as occupied.

On the map: A token disc for a seized lordship. The estates were scattered farms and rents, not a territory.

Primary sources for Norway (Sverre)

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Danish annals of Lund, Ryd and other houses (12th and 13th centuries; Lund continued to 1307, Ryd to 1288). Short dated entries from Lund, the archbishop's seat, and from Ryd in Schleswig. Read online
• Chronicle of the Kings of Mann and the Isles, Anonymous (monks of Rushen abbey, Mann) (about 1257, with continuations to 1316). The only native record of the kingdom of Mann and the Hebrides. Read online
• The Icelandic annals to 1578 (compiled from the late 13th century onward from older notes). Year-by-year notices that fix Icelandic chronology. Read online
• Deeds of the Danes, Saxo Grammaticus (about 1185 to 1208). Saxo was writing at Lund in 1200 under Absalon, who died in March 1201, and his last books are an insider's history of Valdemar I and Knud VI to 1185: the Wendish wars, the taking of Rügen, the submission of Pomerania in 1185, the Danish fleet, Absalon's power and the Danish quarrel with the Empire. Read online
• The saga of King Sverre of Norway, Karl Jónsson and a continuator (begun about 1185 under Sverre's own supervision, completed about 1210 to 1220). The king's own authorised saga. Read online
• The saga of the descendants of Knut (the kings of Denmark) (about 1250 to 1260). An Icelandic kings' saga of Denmark that draws on Saxo and Danish tradition and ends in 1187 with Knud VI and Absalon's Wendish wars. Read online
• The sagas of the Baglers (about 1210 to 1220, in a shorter and a longer version). Begins with Sverre's death in March 1202 and the reigns of Hákon Sverrisson, Guttorm and Inge Bårdsson against the Bagler kings Erling Steinvegg and Philippus, so it has nothing for 1200 itself. Read online
• Saga of the Earls of Orkney, Anonymous (Icelandic) (about 1200 to 1230; surviving text mainly from Flateyjarbok, about 1390). The saga's last chapters are about Earl Harald Maddadsson, who in 1200 held Orkney under King Sverre of Norway and Caithness under William the Lion: his long rule, his quarrel with the Scottish king that cost him Caithness in 1196 to 1197, his recovery of it, and the maiming of Bishop John of Caithness and the king's revenge in 1201 to 1202. Read online

6 more in the sources library for Scandinavia.