Stavanger

Who holds it

Name

Bishop Njål (1189/90-1207)

Title

Bishop of Stavanger (Church map record); the king's officer for royal rights

Since

1189/90

Confidence

medium

The see was founded about 1125 and its first bishop, Reinald, an Englishman, built the cathedral of St Swithun. The bishop is the town's great landowner and lord in practice. Njål is bishop from 1189/90 to 1207 (list of bishops); like the other bishops who took part in the 1194 coronation he is under papal ban. How the town's rights were divided between bishop and king in 1200 is not documented in the sources checked.

Lord in 1200

The bishop of Stavanger, Njål, under the king; the division of rights is not documented.

Overlord

King Sverre

Allies and rivals

The bishop serves Sverre under papal displeasure.

How things stand that morning

In Sverre's obedience; the bishop under ban; the interdict in force.

Wealth

Church rents and tithes. No figures.

Threats

• The interdict
• Papal pressure on the bishop to abandon the king

Council

None recorded.

Communities

The cathedral clergy and the bishop's household; townsmen.

Fairs and markets

Church feasts; no chartered fair recorded.

Militia

None recorded; the Rogaland levy.

Walls and castle

No walls or castle.

Trade and crafts

A local market for Jæren and Ryfylke; fish and farm goods; small by comparison with Bergen.

Places of note

• St Swithun's cathedral: Cathedral of the see (Church map).

Where the sources disagree

• campaign notes, Part 11 ruling 11: Scandinavian lesser sees are not pinned. The name Njål (1189/90-1207) comes from the standard list of bishops of Stavanger; it is the researcher's, not the campaign's.

Evidence: The bishop's name is from the list of bishops; the town's government in 1200 is not documented.

On the map: The town and its near land on the Stavanger 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.