MAGNUS THE BLIND (1130-1135) AND HAROLD GILLE (1130-1136).
When the tidings of his father's death reached him, Magnus hastened to
summon a _thing_ in Oslo and have himself proclaimed king of the whole
country. Harold, who had been waiting for this opportunity to break his
oath, did the same at Tunsberg; only he contented himself preliminarily
with half the kingdom. Magnus naturally refused to recognize his claim,
and the people were soon divided into two parties, one of which sided
with Magnus, while the other supported Harold.
In point of character they were both equally unfitted for the leadership
of a nation. Magnus was a coarse, avaricious, and arrogant roisterer,
addicted to drink, and incapable of any noble impulse. Harold was a weak
and vacillating man, jolly, liberal, and easy-going, in whom the Irish
characteristics predominated. He was pliable as wax in the hands of the
liegemen, to whom he left all the cares of state, while he himself
conceived of the royal dignity as a mere privilege to live high, wear
good clothes, and enjoy certain honors in daily intercourse. The tribal
magnates, who had long been excluded from the power which they believed
to be their due, were therefore attracted to him, while Magnus repelled
them by his haughtiness and avarice.
For three years the two rivals kept the peace; but the fourth winter
after their accession, Magnus began to collect troops, and attacked
Harold at Fyrileiv (1134) in Viken, winning a great victory. He was so
elated at his success that, contrary to the advice of the liegemen, he
dismissed his army and betook himself to Bergen, where he lived
riotously, paying no heed to Harold's movements. The latter, in the
meanwhile, had found a refuge in Denmark, and had received the province
of Halland in fief. He soon gathered a sufficient force to invade
Norway, and as he sailed northward to Bergen, he gained many adherents
in the coast-shires. Magnus, when he heard of his approach, lost his
head completely, rejected the counsel of his friend, Sigurd Sigurdsson,
and contented himself with scattering about the city a kind of sharp,
iron "foot-hooks," which in the end only injured his own men, and
locking the harbor with iron chains, whereby he prevented his own
escape, when shortly afterward the town fell into his enemy's hands.
Most of his men then abandoned him, while he himself, with his faithful
friend, Ivar Assersson, remained on his ship, until it was boarded by
Harold's men.
It is scarcely an excuse for Harold Gille to say, that his friends
induced him to commit the atrocity, of which he was now guilty. He did
not content himself with putting Magnus' eyes out, but he cut off one of
his legs and subjected him to another still more revolting mutilation.
Ivar Assersson, who strikingly resembled King Magnus, was asked whether
he would now care to resemble him; and the brave man answered
unflinchingly that he would, whereupon he too was blinded. The miserable
Magnus was now dressed in a monk's garb and shut up in the monastery of
Nidarholm. Bishop Reinald, who was suspected of having the royal
treasures in his keeping, was hanged because he would not reveal their
hiding-place.
These misdeeds did not long remain unavenged. In the summer of 1136 came
a man, named Sigurd, to Norway, who also claimed to be a son of Magnus
Barefoot. Sigurd was a man of great intelligence, courage, and ambition;
and in those respects, at least, a much worthier pretender than the
weak, vicious Harold Gille. He had led a very adventurous life, played
an important role in the feuds between the Earls of the Orkneys, visited
Rome and the Holy Land, and bathed in the Jordan. The ability of Harold
Hard-Ruler and the restless and enterprising spirit of Magnus Barefoot
seemed to be united in him. His mother, Thora Saxe's-Daughter, is said
to have kept the secret of his paternity from him until he was grown,
because Magnus Barefoot had had a child by her sister, and a sense of
shame had therefore kept her silent. As a boy, Sigurd had an
ungovernable disposition, and in order to tame his wildness, his
foster-father had him educated and consecrated to the church. When he
finally kicked through the traces, he was therefore called Sigurd
Slembedegn, _i.e._, the Bad Priest.
On his return to Norway in 1136 Sigurd went to Harold Gille, after
having procured a safe-conduct, and announced his origin. There was now
a chance for Harold to return the generosity, which Sigurd the Crusader
had shown to him when he came, as a poor and unknown youth from Ireland,
and proclaimed himself heir to the throne of Norway. But, although
Sigurd Slembedegn could bring apparently satisfactory proof of the truth
of his assertion, Harold was perhaps, on this account, only the more
afraid of him. His advisers among the liegemen who were now governing
without restraint, in the king's name, had cause to fear a man like
Sigurd who would make short work of their pretensions. They therefore
advised the king to rid himself of the new aspirant to the throne, by
fair means or foul. On the pretence of punishing him for his alleged
participation in a slaying, Harold made an attempt to capture him; but
Sigurd escaped by swimming, and returned the king's breach of faith by
killing him in the house of his mistress, Thora Guttorm's-Daughter. He
then called the citizens of Bergen together, and, standing upon his
ship, avowed the murder and asked them to make him their king. Contrary
to his expectation, however, a great indignation was aroused against
him, and the liegemen artfully fanned the excitement, until it was no
longer safe for him to remain in the city. "If thou art the son of King
Magnus," the citizens said, "then it is thy brother whom thou hast
assassinated." And they forthwith outlawed the regicide and all his
adherents. Sigurd fled in haste northward on his ships and arrived in
Nordhoerdland. Harold Gille was thirty-two years old, when he was slain.
He was one of the most unworthy kings that ever disgraced the throne of
Norway. It was a short while before his death (1136) that the Wends,
under their prince, Ratibor, sacked and burned the flourishing town of
Konghelle, which Sigurd the Crusader had enlarged and beautified.
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