Kings and their demesnes · Kingdom of Norway: King Sverre and the Birkebeiner · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Sverre

The crown's own land in Sverre's half of Norway is a string of royal farms along the sea road, the king's residences and castles at Bergen and Nidaros, and the estates seized from his enemies.

These farms feed the king and his hird when he travels, store the levy and the land tax paid in kind, and anchor his power in each district. Bergen is his usual seat; the castle there is where he will die in 1202.

Who he is

Name
Sverre Sigurdsson
Title
King of Norway
Since
1177 (acclaimed); sole king 1184; crowned 29 June 1194
Born
About 1150-51; about 48 or 49
Family
See the realm record Norway (Sverre): queen Margrete Eriksdotter; sons Sigurd Lavard and Haakon; daughter Kristin; infant grandson Guttorm.
Confidence
high

The king's own holdings are the royal farms (kongsgårder) worked by his stewards (ármenn), his residences in Bergen and Nidaros, his castles, and the estates he confiscated from the fallen lords of Magnus's party and from the archbishop. On 1 January 1200 he is at Oslo with the army, not on these estates.

What it holds

  • The king's residence on Holmen at Bergen and the stone castle on the knoll above it
  • Alrekstad, the royal farm outside Bergen
  • Avaldsnes on Karmøy, on the Karmsund sea road
  • Fitjar on Stord
  • Utstein in Rogaland
  • The king's residence at Nidaros and the farm of Lade (Hlaðir)
  • The castle (Sverresborg) on Steinberget at Nidaros, damaged and its well fouled by the Bagler in 1197-98
  • The archbishop of Nidaros's estates and revenues, seized after 1190 (Church map record Nidaros)
  • Estates confiscated from the lords of Magnus Erlingsson's party who fell in 1179-1184 (not listed farm by farm in the sources)

How it was acquired

The old royal farms came with the crown; the rest by confiscation after Kalvskinnet (1179), Fimreite (1184) and the archbishop's flight (1190).

Allies and rivals

As in the realm record.

How things stand that morning

Held. The king is absent, wintering at Oslo; his stewards and officers run the farms. Bergen was burned by the Bagler on 11 August 1198 and is rebuilding; the castle held.

Wealth

Rents and the land tax in kind, stockfish, the levy dues and tolls at Bergen and Nidaros. No figures.

Military

The Bergen castle; the hird; the levy fleet of the west.

Threats

  • Bagler raids by sea, as in 1197-98
  • Absence of the king in Viken

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. 1200The king returns to the west after the winter in Viken (season not pinned); Bergen remains his base for the last campaign of 1201.Depends on: Victory at Oslo in March 1200. Stopped by: Defeat in Viken.

Places of note

  • Holmen, Bergen: The king's residence by the harbour.
  • Bergen castle: Sverre's stone castle.
  • Sverresborg, Nidaros: Given up to the Bagler in the winter of 1197-98; its use in 1200 not pinned.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The royal farms named are well-known kongsgårder of the period; a full list of the crown's land in 1200 does not exist.

On the map: Royal farms are drawn as small discs; the confiscated estates were scattered farms and are not drawn.

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.

Sources and studies

  1. Sverre, norsk konge (Store norske leksikon)
  2. Sverre of Norway (English Wikipedia)
  3. Sverris saga (written in part from the king's own dictation by Abbot Karl Jónsson, finished after 1202); read through the secondary works cited

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.