The largest town in Norway and the king's chief seat: the port where the stockfish of Lofoten and the north is bought by Englishmen, Germans and others, where the king keeps his hall, his castle and his treasury, and where the bishop (Martin, Sverre's man) has his church.
Burned by the Bagler eighteen months ago, it is rebuilding along the wharf (Bryggen). Sverre will die here in March 1202.
Who holds it
- Name
- King Sverre
- Title
- The king's town; his officer (gjaldkeri) and the castle's commander (names not pinned)
- Since
- 1183 (Sverre seized Magnus's fleet at Bergen); his own seat since 1184
- Confidence
- high
Bergen is Sverre's usual residence: the royal hall on Holmen and his stone castle on the knoll behind it. In summer 1198 the Bagler besieged the castle and burned the town on 11 August 1198; the castle held. The town's officers in 1200 are not named in the sources checked.
Lord in 1200
King Sverre directly, through his town officer (gjaldkeri) and the castle commander; names not pinned.
Overlord
King Sverre
Allies and rivals
Loyal to Sverre since 1184; target of the Bagler in 1198.
How things stand that morning
Held firmly for Sverre; the king is absent in Viken. The town is rebuilding after the fire of August 1198.
Wealth
Stockfish trade, tolls and dues. No figures.
Military
The castle, the king's ships and the west's levy.
Threats
- Another Bagler descent by sea
- Fire
Charter
None; a royal town, by tradition founded by Olav Kyrre (about 1070), under the king's town law and the Gulating law.
Council
No council; the townsmen's assembly (mot) under the king's officer.
Communities
Norwegian townsmen; seasonal English, German, Orkney, Shetland, Icelandic and Faroese traders (no settled German community or Kontor yet); the clergy of Christ Church and of the Benedictine abbey of Munkeliv and other houses (Church map).
Fairs and markets
The stockfish season, when the northern boats come south in summer; no chartered fair.
Militia
The townsmen fight with the king when the town is attacked, as in 1198; no separate militia recorded.
Walls and castle
No town wall. Sverre's stone castle on the knoll behind the royal residence on Holmen; held through the siege of summer 1198.
Trade and crafts
Stockfish from the north for England and the Continent; grain, malt, cloth and wine coming in. In 1186 Sverre spoke against the German merchants for selling wine that set the town brawling, and praised the English who brought wheat, honey, flour and cloth. Rune-stick letters of merchants and the king's men survive from the 1198 fire layer.
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.
- Summer 1200The stockfish ships come south from Lofoten and the foreign ships come in for the season.Depends on: Peace on the sea roads. Stopped by: A Bagler fleet in the west.
Places of note
- Holmen: The royal residence.
- Sverre's castle: Stone castle on the knoll behind Holmen.
- Christ Church: The cathedral on Holmen (Church map); Sverre will be buried here.
- Bryggen: The wharf of the merchants, burned 1198.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The saga and the Bryggen excavations make Bergen the best-known Norwegian town of the period; the officers in 1200 are not named.
On the map: The town with its near land on the Bergen peninsula.
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
- Sverre of Norway (English Wikipedia)
- Sverre, norsk konge (Store norske leksikon)
- 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.