Nidaros

Who holds it

Name

Not pinned: held for King Sverre

Title

The king's officer in the town (name not pinned)

Since

Retaken from the Bagler after the Strindsjø, 18 June 1199

Confidence

low

The Bagler took Nidaros in the winter of 1197-98 (late 1197 or January 1198 by different accounts), when Torstein Kugad, commanding Sverre's castle on Steinberget, went over to them; Sverre's attempt to retake the Trøndelag by sea in May 1198 failed; the Strindsjø victory of 18 June 1199 gave it back to him. Who commands in the town for the king on 1 January 1200 is not recorded in the sources checked.

Lord in 1200

King Sverre, through officers whose names are not pinned; the archbishop's own rights are suspended while he is in exile and his estates are in the king's hands.

Overlord

King Sverre

Allies and rivals

The king against the exiled archbishop and his chapter's sympathisers; the Trønder farmers backed the Bagler in 1197-98.

How things stand that morning

Held for Sverre since June 1199. Under interdict: the archbishop is in exile and the clergy who serve do so under papal ban.

Wealth

Pilgrim offerings, tolls and rents. No figures.

Military

The damaged castle on Steinberget; the king's men and the Trøndelag levy.

Threats

• Bagler raids by sea, as in 1197 and 1198
• The interdict, which chokes the pilgrim traffic

Charter

None; a royal town (kaupang) founded, by tradition, by Olav Tryggvason in 997, living under the king's town law and the Frostating law.

Council

No council. The townsmen meet in their own assembly (the town mot) under the king's officer (gjaldkeri).

Communities

Clergy of the cathedral chapter; the Benedictines of Nidarholm on the island off the town; the Augustinian canons of Elgeseter; townsmen; pilgrims from all the North.

Fairs and markets

The great gathering is St Olav's feast (Olsok, 29 July) with its pilgrims and market.

Militia

The townsmen owe service with the levy; no separate militia recorded.

Walls and castle

No town wall. Sverre's stone castle (the Sverresborg) on Steinberget west of the town, begun 1182-83, was given up to the Bagler in the winter of 1197-98 and its well fouled; whether it is in use in 1200 is not pinned (its walls stand until 1263).

Trade and crafts

Pilgrims; the Trøndelag's grain, butter and timber; fish and furs from the north; trade with Iceland, the Faroes and England. Smaller than Bergen as a port.

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. 29 July 1200Olsok, St Olav's feast, under the interdict.Depends on: The interdict still in force. Stopped by: A settlement with Rome.

Places of note

• Christ Church (Nidaros cathedral): St Olav's shrine; the archbishop's church (Church map).
• Sverresborg: Sverre's castle, damaged in 1197-98.
• Nidarholm: Benedictine abbey on the island (Church map).

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Changes of hands 1197-99 are well attested; the town's officers in 1200 are not.

On the map: The town and its near land; the archbishop's estates 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.