Everything about Sigurd Jorsalfar totally explained
» "Sigurd Jorsalfar" redirects here. For the orchestral suite by Edvard Grieg, see Sigurd Jorsalfar (Grieg).
Sigurd I Magnusson (ca.
1090 -
March 26,
1130), also known (in Norwegian) as
Sigurd Jorsalfare (
Old Norse Sigurðr Jórsalafari, translation:
Sigurd the Crusader, literal translation:
Sigurd, the Jerusalem-farer) was
king of Norway from
1103 to
1130. He initially shared the throne with his brothers
Øystein and
Olav, but ruled alone from
1123.
In
1098 Sigurd accompanied his father, King
Magnus III, on his expedition to the
Orkney Islands,
Hebrides and
Irish Sea. He was made King of
Orkney the same year, following the removal of the incumbent
jarls of Orkney,
Paul and Erlend Thorfinnsson. He was also, apparently, made
King of Mann and the Isles in that year, following the overthrow of their king by Magnus.
It isn't certain whether Sigurd returned with Magnus to
Norway after the
1098 expedition; however, it's known that he was in Orkney when Magnus returned west in
1102. A marriage alliance was negotiated between Magnus and
Muircheartach Ua Briain, the leading king in
Ireland at the time and ruler of
Dublin. Sigurd was to marry Muirchertach's daughter. However, when Magnus was killed in
Ulaid in
1103, the 14-year-old Sigurd returned to Norway, leaving his child-bride behind, and became king together with his brothers Øystein and Olav.
In
1107, Sigurd led a Norwegian contingent in support of the
crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. He was the first European king to go on
crusade, and his crusader feats earned him the nickname
Jorsalafari ("Jerusalem-farer"). He fought in
Lisbon, various
Mediterranean islands and
Palestine, and visited king
Roger II of Sicily in
Palermo,
Jerusalem (
Jorsalaland) and
Constantinople (
Miklagard). He joined forces with
Baldwin I,
King of Jerusalem to capture the coastal city of
Sidon in
1110.
After returning to Norway in
1111, Sigurd made his capital in Konghelle (
Kungälv in present-day
Sweden) and built a castle there, where he kept a
relic given to him by King Baldwin, a splinter reputed to be from the
True Cross. In 1123 Sigurd once again set out to fight in the name of the church, this time to
Småland in Sweden, where the inhabitants had renounced their Christian faith and were again worshipping their former gods.
During Sigurd's reign, the
tithe (a 10% tax to benefit the church) was introduced in Norway. Sigurd also founded the
diocese of
Stavanger because he was denied divorce by the bishop in
Bergen, so he simply installed another bishop further south.
Sigurd died in 1130 and was buried in the Hallvardskirken church in
Oslo. Sigurd and his queen Malmfred (a daughter of
Grand Prince Mstislav I of Kiev and granddaughter of king
Inge I of Sweden) had a daughter, Kristin Sigurddatter, but no legitimate sons. This led to a power struggle following Sigurd's death between various illegitimate sons and other royal pretenders, which escalated into a lengthy civil war.
During this
civil war era in Norway, which lasted from 1130 until
1240, there were several interlocked conflicts of varying scale and intensity. The background for these conflicts were the unclear Norwegian
succession laws, social conditions and struggles between various groups of noblemen fighting for power. There were two main parties, the
Bagler and
Birkebeiner. The rallying point regularly was a royal son, or a person claimed by his followers to be a royal son, who was set up as the head figure of the party in question, to oppose the rule of a king from the contesting party. In the traditions of succession of the day there was little no difference between a legitimate and an illegitimate son of a king; the competence and popularity of the potential heir was supposed to be the deciding factor. This laid the ground-work for long feuds over who should rule the
kingdom of Norway in the
12th century and early
13th century.
Around
1225,
Snorri Sturluson recorded the saga of Sigurd and his brothers in the
Heimskringla. In the
19th Century,
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson wrote an historical drama based on the life of the king, with incidental music composed by
Edvard Grieg.
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