Inge the Elder
Inge the Elder | |
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Ingamoder Emundsdotter |
Inge the Elder (
Biography
Inge was the son of the former King
In a letter to Inge from
Rise of Blot-Sweyn and the expulsion of Inge
In perhaps the early 1080s,
Steinkel had a son called Ingi, who became King of Sweden after Haakon. Ingi was King of Sweden for a long time, and was popular and a good Christian. He tried to put an end to heathen sacrifices in Sweden and commanded all the people to accept Christianity; yet the Swedes held to their ancient faith. King Ingi married a woman called Mær who had a brother called Svein. King Ingi liked Svein better than any other man, and Svein became thereby the greatest man in Sweden. The Swedes considered that King Ingi was violating the ancient law of the land when he took exception to many things which Steinkel his father had permitted, and at an assembly held between the Swedes and King Ingi, they offered him two alternatives, either to follow the old order, or else to abdicate. Then King Ingi spoke up and said that he would not abandon the true faith; whereupon the Swedes raised a shout and pelted him with stones, and drove him from the assembly. [...] They drove King Ingi away; and he went into Vestergötland. Svein the Sacrificer was King of Sweden for three years.[5]
However, Inge returned after three winters to kill Blot-Sweyn and reclaim the throne:[8][4]
King Ingi set off with his retinue and some of his followers, though it was but a small force. He then rode eastwards by Småland and into Östergötland and then into Sweden. He rode both day and night, and came upon Svein suddenly in the early morning. They caught him in his house and set it on fire and burned the band of men who were within. There was a baron called Thjof who was burnt inside. He had been previously in the retinue of Svein the Sacrificer. Svein himself left the house, but was slain immediately. Thus Ingi once more received the Kingdom of Sweden; and he reestablished Christianity and ruled the Kingdom till the end of his life, when he died in his bed.[5]
A similar story also appears in the Orkneyinga saga, but in this account, Sweyn stays indoors and is burnt to death:
Christianity was then young in Sweden; there were then many men who went about with witchcraft, and thought by that to become wise and knowing of many things which had not yet come to pass. King Ingi was a thorough Christian man, and all wizards were loathsome to him. He took great pains to root out those evil ways which had long gone hand in hand with heathendom, but the rulers of the land and the great freeholders took it ill that their bad customs were found fault with. So it came about that the freemen chose them another king, Sweyn, the queen’s brother, who still held to his sacrifices to idols, and was called Sacrifice-Sweyn. Before him king Ingi was forced to fly the land into West-Gothland; but the end of their dealings was, that king Ingi took the house over Sweyn’s head and burnt him inside it. After that he took all the land under him. Then he still went on rooting out many bad ways.[10]
In Västergötland, Inge lived, according to later tradition, at Bjurum near present-day Falköping.[11] An Icelandic skald named Markús Skeggjason was one of his court poets, according to Skáldatal. Markús was later the lawspeaker of Iceland from 1084. It has been suggested that the details about Inge and Blot-Sweyn in the Norse literature are derived from him. In that case Blot-Sweyn's short reign would fall in the early years of the 1080s.[3]
According to the
Later years
Around 1100, Inge and Queen Helena founded
About this time Inge and the Norwegian king
King Inge was the largest and stoutest, and, from his age, of the most dignified appearance. King Magnus appeared the most gallant and brisk, and King Eric the most handsome. But they were all handsome men; stout, gallant, and ready in speech.[17]
Death
The Hervarar saga tells that Inge died of old age and that he ruled until his death.[5] The exact date of his death is not known,[4] but his successor Philip (d. 1118) is said to have ruled "briefly". Since the province of Jämtland went over to the Norwegian king in 1111, it might mean that the forceful Inge was dead by the time, and that his weak successors were unable to maintain his realm. He may therefore have died around 1110.[18] According to later local tradition, Inge was originally buried in a small church at Bjurum, but his remains were later moved to another location.[11] There is also a gravestone for him in a deserted churchyard at Hånger and a special cenotaph among other royal grave chapels at Varnhem Abbey.[19] Inge's actual grave is most likely a set of remains found in Vreta Abbey in a section of the abbey church that was erected by Inge's son Ragnvald.[20] All skeletons that are likely to be that of Inge are very tall, about two meters in length, suggesting that Snorri's description was accurate.
Family
King Inge was married to Helena. Together with Helena, Inge founded the monastery of Vreta.[4] Inge's son, Ragnvald, died before he could succeed his father on the throne. Inge was succeeded by his two nephews, Philip and Inge the Younger, who were the sons of his elder brother King Halsten Stenkilsson.[5]
King Inge and Queen Helena were the parents of four children:
- Kiev.
- Ragnvald, father of Ingrid Ragnvaldsdotter. It has been suggested by historian Sven Tunberg that this Ragnvald is identical with Ragnvald Knaphövde.[21]
- Niels of Denmark
- Björn Ironside Haraldsson
See also
Notes and references
- ^ Dick Harrison, "Inge den äldre", Nationalencyklopedin, http://www.ne.se/uppslagsverk/encyklopedi/l%C3%A5ng/inge Archived 5 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Peter Sawyer, När Sverige blev Sverige. Alingsås: Viktoria, 1991, p. 37.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "619–620 (Nordisk familjebok / Uggleupplagan. 12. Hyperemi – Johan)". runeberg.org. 23 January 1910. Archived from the original on 27 October 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2006.
- ^ a b c d e The Saga of Hervör and Heithrek, in Stories and Ballads of the Far Past, translated from the Norse (Icelandic and Faroese), by N. Kershaw.Cambridge at the University Press, 1921. Archived 27 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- Westrogothic lawgives Håkan a reign of 13 winters (Mats G. Larsson, Götarnas riken. Upptäcktsfärder till Sveriges enande. Stockholm: Atlantis, 2002, p. 158, 184). If he governed (parts of) Sweden after Stenkil's death, as indicated by the Norse sources, his reign would have ended in c. 1079. This year is sometimes taken as the start of Inge I's reign (Philip Line, Kingship and State Formation in Sweden 1130–1290. Leiden: Brill, 2007, p. 590).
- ^ Inge Archived 7 August 2011 at archive.today in Nationalencyklopedin
- ^ a b c The article Inge d.ä. in Nationalencyklopedin.
- ^ The years of the brief reign of Blot-Sweyn are sometimes given as 1084–1087 or, alternatively, 1080/81-1083/84 (Detlef Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln, Marburg 1978–85, Bd. II).
- ^ "The Orkneyingers Saga, translated by Sir G. W. Dasent, D.C.L. (1894), at Northvegr". Archived from the original on 12 May 2006. Retrieved 22 December 2006.
- ^ a b "Hångers kyrkoruin", http://wadbring.com/historia/undersidor/hanger.htm Archived 5 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Nils Ahnlund, "Vreta klosters äldsta donatorer", Historisk tidskrift 65, 1945, p. 318-26.
- ^ Tore Nyberg, "Adam av Bremen och Florenslistan", Scandia 57:2, 1991, pp. 166–79.
- ^ "Inge – Uppslagsverk – NE.se". www.ne.se. Archived from the original on 5 March 2017. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
- ^ Magnus Barefoot's Saga [1] Archived 3 August 2023 at the Wayback Machine; Saxo Grammaticus, Danmarks krønike, Book XIII, http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Niels
- ^ Saxo Grammaticus, Danmarks krønike, Book XII, http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Olaf_Hunger Archived 3 August 2023 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Magnus Barefoot's Saga, from Heimskringla (English translation), at the Online Medieval & Classical Library". Archived from the original on 7 May 2005.
- Skånefor three years, and was then murdered in his bed by unspecified assailants. This is partly gainsaid by older sources, however.
- ISBN 91-0-075007-7p 44
- ^ Göran Tagesson (2007). I Erik Lundbergs fotspår – klosterköket, Stenkilska gravkoret och ett (o)möjligt babtisterium. Vreta klosters klosterområde och kyrka. RAÄ 50. Riksantikvarieämbetet UV Öst Rapport 2007:60. Arkeologisk undersökning, murverksdokumentation och antikvarisk kontroll 2005–2007.
- ^ Sven Tunberg (1954). "Ragnvald Knapphövde, ett bidrag till diskussionen om Sveriges medeltida konungalängd". Svensk Tidskrift. Upsala: Almqvist & Wiksells: 35–40.
Sources
- Lagerqvist, Lars O. Sverige och dess regenter under 1.000 år(Stockholm: Albert Bonniers Förlag AB., 1982)
- Soloviev, Sergei The History of Russia from the Most Ancient Times (1959–1966)
- William, Abbot of Ebelholt, "Genealogia regum Danorum" (1195), in Scriptores minores historiae Danicae medii aevi (Copenhagen: Gad, 1917–18).