HAAKON SVERRESSON (1202-1204).
In his dying message to his son Sverre advised him to make peace with
the Church. He foresaw that the interdict which was weighing heavily
upon the land would be an increasingly powerful weapon in the hands of
the Baglers, and would continue to alienate the hearts of the people
from the king. Haakon, who had not personally been engaged in the
controversy, could, without loss of dignity, make overtures for a
reconciliation, and might, if necessary, make concessions. The bishops
were, however, so tired of their long exile and dependence upon foreign
bounty, that they accepted with eagerness his offer of peace and
hastened to return to their bishoprics. What the terms of the
reconciliation were we do not know. The old Archbishop Erik, who was now
blind and decrepit, was especially glad to return home, as his patron,
Archbishop Absalon, had recently died, and his position in Denmark, as a
dependent of the king, was scarcely an agreeable one. No sooner had he
set foot on Norse soil than he declared the interdict revoked, without
even awaiting the Pope's consent--a rashness for which he was later
rebuked by Innocent III. The Pope, however, though he no doubt enjoyed
wielding the tremendous weapons of his wrath, acquiesced in the terms of
the peace, and had no fault to find with the new king's attitude toward
the Church. The fact was, Haakon Sverresson was a gentle and lovable
character, who delighted in peace rather than war. All the people, weary
of the long and bloody civil feud, felt drawn toward him and hastened to
acknowledge him. After his proclamation as king at Oere-_thing_, and the
revocation of the interdict, he was undisputed master of the land; and
the star of the Baglers seemed forever to have set. Many of their
influential chiefs deserted to Haakon; and their so-called king, Inge,
was slain on an island in Mjoesen by his own men and the peasants. Bishop
Nicholas exchanged temporarily the helmet for the mitre, and kept as
quiet as his restlessly intriguing mind would permit. Reidar Messenger
had, after his capitulation at Tunsberg, sworn fidelity to Sverre, and
meant to keep faith with his son. It seemed therefore that, at last, all
dangers were removed, and that the young and popular king had a prospect
of a long and happy reign. Then, as a bolt of lightning out of a sunny
sky, came a calamity which suddenly plunged the country again into war
and misery.
We have heard that Sverre married Margaret, the daughter of the Swedish
king, Erik the Saint. He had with her no sons, but a daughter,
Christina. His two sons, Sigurd Lavard, who died before his father, and
Haakon, were born on the Faeroe Isles; and their mother was Astrid, the
daughter of Bishop Roe. It is probable that Sverre was married to her,
but it is told that he did not bring her to Norway, because she had been
unfaithful to him. According to a tradition, however, she was brought to
Norway by her son, who gave her a large estate near Nidaros and treated
her with consideration and kindness. This act Haakon's step-mother, the
queen-dowager Margaret, regarded as an insult to her, and determined to
leave the country. Being a passionate and imperious woman, proud of her
birth and relentless in her hate, she imagined that she was not accorded
the honor that was her due at the court, and she particularly took
offence because the king claimed precedence before her. Being averse to
strife, he did his best to conciliate her, but with small success. The
queen-dowager betook herself to Oslo with her daughter, intending thence
to proceed to Sweden, where she owned large estates. The king, though he
did not dispute her right to leave, denied her right to take with her
his half-sister, whose natural guardian he was; and sent his cousin,
Peter Steyper, to induce her to desist from her resolution. The queen,
however, remained obdurate. She would not concede that Haakon had any
right over her child. Finding threats and persuasion unavailing, Peter
Steyper attempted a stratagem. He burst into the princess' room, while
her mother was taking a bath, crying at the top of his voice that the
Baglers had come to town. Christina implored him in terror to save her;
whereupon he seized her in his arms and ran with her down to the piers,
jumped on board of his ship, and set sail. The queen, as soon as she
heard the noise, rushed into the street, and reached the pier just as
the ship was gliding from its moorings. Beside herself with wrath, she
screamed after the Birchlegs: "Would that I may live to see the day when
I shall cause you as great a sorrow as you to-day have caused me."
Much more that she cried they did not hear, for her voice came more
faintly to them through the wind, as the distance increased. From that
day she hated the king, though it is by no means clear that he approved
of Peter Steyper's violence. Finding her position in Sweden less
agreeable than she had expected, she was soon induced to return to
Norway, where she became a centre of mischievous intrigue. Among her
partisans was the king's cousin, Haakon Galen, a son of Sigurd Mouth's
daughter Cecilia and Folkvid the Lawman, a brave and reckless youth who
was deeply in love with the queen's niece, Mistress Christina.[A] Over
him the two women, both of whom were arch-plotters, had considerable
influence, and the desire rose in them to put him on the throne in his
cousin's place. King Haakon, who, if he had suspected his stepmother's
design, would have been on his guard, furnished her now with the
opportunity for accomplishing her evil purpose. He invited her and her
daughter to his Yule-tide feast, offering her the high-seat at his own
side. So far from being conciliated by this offer, the queen burst forth
vehemently: "Long shall I remember how I sat in the high-seat with my
lord, King Sverre, on Christmas Eve. Bring my greeting to King Haakon,
and tell him that I shall not share his high-seat to-night."
[Footnote A: Not the same as the Princess Christina, Sverre's and
Margaret's daughter.]
The king was aggrieved at this rebuff, and sent a second message,
begging her at least to allow his sister Christina to grace his feast by
her presence. The messenger added that the king was very wroth.
"Does he suppose," cried Margaret, "that I do not remember how he caused
my daughter to be torn away from me at Oslo, without his reminding me of
it into the bargain?"
To everybody's surprise, however, she began to dress for the feast, and
soon both mother and daughter entered the banqueting hall, where they
were received with much honor.
The feast was a merry one and good cheer reigned in the hall. Toward the
evening of the day after Christmas, however, the king began to feel
indisposed, and grew worse as the night advanced. He had himself bled,
but the illness made rapid progress, until he lost consciousness. His
body turned blue and swelled up terribly. On New Year's Day, 1204, he
died. It was evident that he had been poisoned, and the rumor soon got
abroad that it was the queen who had killed him. Although Haakon Galen
did his best to lead suspicion away from her, a general clamor arose
that she should prove her innocence by carrying glowing irons. This the
queen refused to do, and in consideration of her rank obtained
permission to appoint a substitute who should submit to the ordeal in
her place. This substitute, however, though he betrayed no fear of the
result, was found to have been badly burned, and the belief now became
general that the queen was guilty. The excitement against her was so
great that Haakon Galen was obliged to conduct her secretly away from
Nidaros, and to hide her in the house of one of his kinsmen in the
country. Later she made her escape to Sweden, where she probably passed
the rest of her days on her estates. Both the Princess Christina and her
cousin Christina remained in Norway, the latter as Haakon Galen's
mistress.
The death of Haakon Sverresson plunged the country in deep grief, not
only because he was personally beloved, but because it was supposed that
he left no issue.
The opportunity was now at hand for a new crop of pretenders to fight
for the crown and spread once more anarchy and desolation over the land.
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