Inge Bårdsson
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| Inge Bårdsson | |
|---|---|
Gille (cognatic) | |
| Father | Bård Guttormsson |
| Mother | Cecilia Sigurdsdotter |
Inge II (
Background
Inge’s father, Bård, was a prominent . After her brother, Sverre, had won the throne of Norway, she left her husband and travelled to Sverre in Norway, claiming she had been wedded to Folkvid against her will. The archbishop annulled her marriage to Folkvid, and Sverre gave her to his trusted follower Bård Guttormsson in marriage. Inge was Bård and Cecilia’s only son.
Accession
After king Sverre died in 1202, his son,
Reign
The next four years saw intense fighting between the birkebeiner and the bagler. The bagler king Erling died in 1206, but the bagler continued the fight under their new king,
The peace treaty held for the rest of Inge’s reign. However, Philip did not respect its provisions and continued to use the title of king, maintaining his royal seal. The relationship between Inge and his brother Haakon remained tense. When it became clear that Philip was continuing to call himself king, Haakon made attempts to have himself declared king as well, but Inge refused to accept this. Instead, an agreement was drawn up by which the brother that survived the other would inherit the other’s lands, while a legitimate son of either would inherit them both. Haakon had a legitimate son, while Inge only had an illegitimate son, Guttorm (b. 1206) by a concubine called Gyrid. In 1214, Inge suppressed a rising by the farmers of Trøndelag; Earl Haakon was suspected of having had a hand in the rising. Open conflict between the two brothers never broke out, however, and Haakon died of natural causes in Bergen just after Christmas of 1214. Inge took over his part of the kingdom.
In 1217, Inge fell ill in Nidaros. During his illness, he appointed his younger half-brother,
Appraisal of Inge
Many historians have seen Inge as a rather weak king. He never achieved control over all of Norway, and agreed to a power-sharing with the bagler, which he stuck to even though Philip broke the agreement by continuing to style himself as "king". As a reaction to such views, others have claimed that Inge was a strong ruler, in that he was able to withstand the pressure of the more war-like among the birkebeiner and put a halt to the destructive civil wars for a time.
The bagler sagas - a contemporary source - describes Inge as a quiet and calm man, who shied away from feasting and preferred to spend his time in his own quarters with close friends - a character trait which was held against him by some of his men. His health was weakened following his near brush with death during the attack on Nidaros in 1206.
Sources
Main sources for Inge's reign are the bagler sagas, which were written during and shortly after his reign. Inge is also mentioned less extensively at the start of Håkon Håkonsson's saga. The first Norwegian royal letter to survive dates from the days of Inge's reign, however, it was written by Inge's rival Philip.
References
- ^ a b Helle, Knut; Norseng, Per G. (2023-04-19). "Inge 2. Bårdsson – Store norske leksikon". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2024-02-16.