Philippus jarl

Who he is

Name

Philippus (Filip) Birgersson

Title

Jarl (earl) in Norway under King Sverre

Since

Not pinned (made jarl by Sverre at a date the sources checked do not give)

Born

Not pinned; a grown man

Family

Son of Birger Brosa, jarl of the Swedes (died 9 January 1202), and Brigida Haraldsdotter, daughter of King Harald Gille of Norway. His brothers Knut and Folke are later Swedish jarls; his sister Ingegerd is to marry King Sverker II of Sweden during 1200. Through his mother he is Sverre's first cousin, if Sverre was Sigurd Munn's son.

Confidence

low

The English Wikipedia (Birger Brosa; Birkebeiner) names him as Sverre's jarl and one of his staunchest supporters and gives his death as 1200, with no day or place. When he became jarl, what district or command went with the title and where he is on 1 January 1200 are not pinned. Since the day of his death in 1200 is unknown, he is taken as alive on 1 January, with low confidence.

Overlord

King Sverre

What it holds

• The title of jarl and, presumably, a share of the royal revenues and a command; the district is not recorded

How it was acquired

By Sverre's grant.

Allies and rivals

Sverre and the Birkebeiner; his father's house in Sweden, which is also tied to King Sverker II by marriage.

How things stand that morning

Sverre's jarl; location and command on 1 January 1200 not pinned.

Wealth

Not recorded.

Military

Not recorded.

Threats

• Death in 1200 (date and cause not recorded)

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. 1200 (date not pinned)Philippus jarl dies. Sverre names no new jarl in his lifetime; the next jarl is Håkon Galen in 1204.Depends on: The natural course; the cause is not recorded. Stopped by: Nothing known.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Only short notices in secondary works checked; the saga passages that name him were not read directly.

On the map: No land to draw; marker at the king's seat.

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.