Magnus Haakonsson (1 or 3 May 1238 – 9 May 1280) was King of Norway (as Magnus VI ) from 1263 to 1280 (junior king from 1257). One of his greatest achievements was the modernisation and nationalisation of the Norwegian law-code, after which he is known as Magnus the Lawmender . He was the first Norwegian monarch known to have used an ordinal number , although originally counting himself as "IV".
22-457: Járnsíða ( Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈjau(r)tn̥ˌsiːða] , ironside ) was a law-code which Magnus VI of Norway had composed for Iceland, which came formally under Norwegian control during 1262–1264. Járnsíða was introduced over 1271–1273, superseding the previous law-code Grágás . Amongst other things, Járnsíða formally put all legislative powers in the hands of the King, abolished
44-541: A great effort to modernise the law-code, which gave him his epithet law-mender . These were adopted at the Things in the years 1274 ( Landslov ) and 1276 ( Byloven ). In 1274 he promulgated the new national law, known as Magnus Lagabøtes landslov , a unified code of laws to apply for the whole country, including the Faroe Islands and Shetland . This replaced the different regional laws which had existed before. It
66-675: A large area around Oslo in Eastern Norway and Stavanger in the southwest, subordinate to King Eirik. The king's main residence was in Bergen in Western Norway. Eirik married Princess Margaret of Scotland , daughter of King Alexander III of Scotland in Bergen in 1281. Margaret died two years later in childbirth, giving birth to Margaret, Maid of Norway , who was to be Queen of Scotland, but she died in 1290. Her death sparked
88-475: Is probably also the first Norwegian king to have named himself using an ordinal number - he called himself "Magnus IV" (he did not count Magnus Haraldsson (II) and Magnus Sigurdsson (IV)). Immediately after his father's death, he commissioned the Icelander Sturla Þórðarson to write his father's saga , or biography. In 1278, he commissioned the same man to write his own saga. The Saga of Magnus
110-623: The goðar , and reformed the Alþingi . In 1281, Járnsíða was itself superseded by Jónsbók . This Iceland -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Magnus VI of Norway He was the youngest son of King Håkon Håkonsson and his wife Margaret Skulesdatter . He was born in Tunsberg and was baptised in May 1238. He spent most of his upbringing in Bergen . In 1257 his older brother Håkon died, leaving Magnus
132-648: The Icelandic Commonwealth under Norwegian control. Magnus was buried in the church of the Franciscan monastery in Bergen, which has since the 16th century been the Bergen Cathedral ( Bergen Domkirke ). Eric II of Norway Eric Magnusson (1268 – 15 July 1299) ( Old Norse : Eiríkr Magnússon ; Norwegian : Eirik Magnusson ) was the King of Norway from 1280 until 1299. Eirik
154-727: The Treaty of Perth , by which the Scots at the same time recognised Norwegian rule over Shetland and the Orkney Islands . In 1269 the Treaty of Winchester cemented good relations with the English king Henry III . Magnus also seems to have had good relations with the Swedish King Valdemar Birgersson , and in the 1260s, the border with Sweden was officially defined for the first time. When Valdemar
176-559: The disputed succession which led to the Wars of Scottish Independence . Eirik briefly and unsuccessfully laid claim to the Scottish crown as inheritance from his daughter. Eirik later married Isabel Bruce , sister of King Robert I of Scotland . Their marriage did not produce a surviving male heir, although it did produce a daughter, Ingebjørg Eiriksdatter of Norway, who married Valdemar Magnusson of Sweden, Duke of Finland, in 1312 and
198-525: The Danish king Eric V . Eirik gave the outlaws sanctuary in Norway in 1287. King Eirik himself led a large Norwegian fleet which, along with the Danish outlaws, attacked Denmark in 1289, burning Elsinore and threatening Copenhagen . Renewed naval attacks on Denmark were made in 1290 and 1293, before peace was made in 1295. As Eirik died without sons, he was succeeded by his brother, as Haakon V of Norway. He
220-614: The Norwegian kingdom was a fief under the ultimate authority of the Catholic Church. In cultural terms Magnus continued his father's policy of introducing European courtly culture to Norway. In 1277 he replaced the old Norse titles lendmann and skutilsvein with the European titles baron and ridder ( knight ), at the same time giving them certain extra privileges and the right to be addressed as lord ( herre ). Magnus
242-511: The archbishop, who resisted temporal authority over the church, and sought to preserve the church's influence over the kingdom. The Tønsberg Concord ( Sættargjerden in Tønsberg ) signed in 1277 between King Magnus and Jon Raude , Archbishop of Nidaros , confirmed certain privileges of the clergy, the freedom of episcopal elections and similar matters. The church preserved considerable independence in judicial matters, but gave up its old claim that
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#1732786749604264-496: The heir-apparent to the kingdom. His father gave him the title of king the same year. On 11 September 1261, he married Ingeborg , the daughter of King Eric IV of Denmark , after she was practically abducted by King Håkon's men from the monastery she was living in. The struggle to claim Ingeborg's inheritance from her murdered father later involved Norway in intermittent conflicts with Denmark for decades to come. Magnus and Ingeborg were crowned directly after their marriage, and Magnus
286-430: The individual and thus narrowed the possibilities of personal vengeance. It increased the formal power of the king, making the throne the source of justice. The municipal law gave the cities increased freedom from rural control. A specific section fixed the law of succession to the throne, in accordance with the arrangements laid down by King Håkon Håkonsson in 1260. The royal succession was an important and prickly matter,
308-437: The last of the civil wars, fought for decades over disputed successions to the throne, having finally ended only in 1240. In 1273 Magnus gave his eldest son, five-year-old Eric , the title of king, and his younger brother Håkon the title of duke , thus making it unequivocally clear who would be his heir. Although Magnus was by all accounts a personally very pious king, his work with the law-codes brought him into conflict with
330-435: The lawmender ( Magnúss saga lagabœtis ) thus became the last of the medieval Norwegian kings' sagas ; unfortunately, only a short fragment of it has been preserved. In the spring of 1280, Magnus fell ill in Bergen. He planned to have his son Eric crowned at midsummer as co-ruler, but died on 9 May. Eric succeeded him at the age of 12. Real power fell to a circle of advisors, prominent among them Magnus' widow, Ingeborg. Magnus
352-412: Was crowned as such in Bergen in the summer of 1280. During his minority, the kingdom was ruled by a royal council consisting of prominent barons and probably also his mother, the dowager queen Ingeborg. After Eirik came of age in 1282, this royal council is still thought to have had a major influence over his reign. His brother, Haakon , was in 1273 given the title "Duke of Norway", and from 1280 ruled
374-522: Was deposed by his two brothers and fled to Norway in 1275, this stirred Magnus into gathering a leidang -fleet for the first and only time in his reign. With a large fleet, he met with the new Swedish King Magnus Ladulås to try to bring about a settlement between the two brothers, but without success, Magnus of Sweden would not give in to pressure and the Magnus of Norway retreated without engaging in hostile actions. In internal politics, Magnus carried out
396-619: Was given Ryfylke for his personal upkeep. On 16 December 1263 King Håkon died while fighting the Scottish king over the Hebrides , and Magnus became the ruler of Norway. Magnus' rule brought about a change from the somewhat aggressive foreign policy of his father. In 1266 he gave up the Hebrides and the Isle of Man to Scotland, in return for a large sum of silver and a yearly payment, under
418-656: Was remembered as a good ruler, who ruled by law rather than by the sword. The nationalist-conservative historian Oscar Albert Johnsen , who headed the Institute of Medieval Texts, founded during the occupation of Norway by the Nazis , considered Magnus a weak king for giving up the Hebrides and acquiescing to the demands of the Church. Mostly considered a rather wise king, sparing the kingdom of unnecessary and unfruitful wars, while preserving stability at home and finally bringing
440-461: Was supplemented by a new municipal law (a law for the cities) in 1276, Magnus Lagabøtes bylov , and a slightly modified version was also drawn up for Iceland . A unified code of laws for a whole country was at this time something quite new, which had until then only been introduced in Sicily and Castile . His code introduced the concept that crime is an offense against the state rather than against
462-462: Was the eldest surviving son of King Magnus the Lawmender of Norway , and his wife, Ingeborg , daughter of King Eric IV of Denmark . In 1273, when he was 5 years old, he was given the title of king, alongside his father, who planned to hold a coronation for Eirik as his subordinate co-ruler in the summer of 1280. However, King Magnus died before this could be arranged, and Eirik became sole king and
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#1732786749604484-650: Was then styled Duchess of Öland . A prominent feature of Eirik's reign was the war with Denmark, called the War of the Outlaws (De fredløses krig), which was waged on and off from 1289 until 1295. A major motivation for this warfare was Eirik's claim on his mother's Danish inheritance. In 1287, he entered into an alliance with a group of Danish nobles, most prominently Jacob Nielsen, Count of Halland and Stig Andersen Hvide , who were outlawed in Denmark for allegedly murdering
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