Shetland

Who rules

Name

Sverre Sigurdsson

Title

King of Norway

Since

Shetland taken into the crown's hand in 1195; Sverre king since 1177 (sole king since 1184, crowned 1194)

Born

About 1151; he is about 48

Family

Claimed to be a son of King Sigurd Munn; married Margaret of Sweden; his son Hakon Sverresson succeeds him in 1202.

Confidence

medium

After the Oyskjeggs rising (1193-1194) Sverre made Harald Maddadsson come to Bergen (1195) and took Shetland from the earldom; its taxes and justice went to the king, through a royal sysselman (sýslumaðr). The sysselman's name on 1 January 1200 is not pinned. Sverre is excommunicated and at war with the Baglers in 1200; he dies on 9 March 1202.

Overlord

None (the king himself)

What the realm holds

• The skatt (land tax) and fines of Shetland
• The lawting at Tingwall
• The islands of Mainland, Yell, Unst, Fetlar, Bressay, Whalsay and the rest; Fair Isle and Foula

How it was acquired

Confiscated from the earl of Orkney in 1195.

Allies and rivals

Harald Maddadsson wants Shetland back; it was not returned in his lifetime.

The realm that morning

Held for Sverre by his officer. Quiet.

Wealth

Wool, woollen cloth (vadmal), fish and butter paid as skatt. No figures.

Military

The Shetland levy; no royal castle.

Threats

• Bagler partisans
• Harald's ambitions

Officers

A royal sysselman (name not pinned).

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. 9 March 1202 (outside 1200)Sverre dies at Bergen; Shetland stays with the crown.Depends on: Natural death Stopped by: Death in the Bagler war first

Places of note

• Tingwall: The Shetland lawting

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The confiscation of 1195 is in Sverris saga and the Orkneyinga saga; the administration of Shetland in 1200 is not documented.

Primary sources for this realm

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
• The saga of the Sturlungs: the compilation of contemporary Icelandic sagas, Sturla Þórðarson and other authors, compiled by Þórðr Narfason (the component sagas between about 1200 and 1280; compiled about 1300). The only contemporary narrative of Iceland. Read online
• The sagas of the Icelandic bishops: Páll of Skálholt, Guðmundr of Hólar and Þorlákr (Páls saga about 1211 to 1216; Þorláks saga about 1200 to 1210; the oldest Guðmundar saga in the 13th century). Páls saga is the life of Bishop Páll Jónsson of Skálholt (1195 to 1211), of the Oddaverjar, and tells how he had the churches and priests of his diocese counted, about 220 churches and 290 priests, how he furthered the cult of his uncle Þorlákr, whose relics were raised in 1198 and whose feast the Althing adopted in 1199, and how he dealt with the chieftains. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
• The Danish diplomatarium: charters and letters concerning Denmark, with Danish translation (documents of 789 to 1448; the online edition is continuing). Twenty-seven documents are dated to 1200: Innocent III's letters of February and March 1200 to Philip Augustus and Queen Ingeborg and his order for the interdict on France, Otto IV's letter to the pope expecting King Knud VI to move into Saxony, the reports of the legate Octavian and the French bishops on the lifting of the interdict in September, the pope's letters to Knud VI asking him to send advocates for his sister, Knud VI's ordinance on manslaughter for Skåne of 28 December 1200, and private gifts to Roskilde and Næstved. Read online

2 more in the sources library for Scandinavia.