Sigurd Ier of Norway

Sigurd I Jorsalafare ( the Crusader ) (1090 - 1130) king of Norway of 1103 with 1130

Sigurd Ier of Norway was born about 1090. He is the son of Magnus III Barfotr and his Thora concubine.

The youth of the king

Very young person it accompanies his father in warlike forwardings carried out in 1098 and 1102 in order to maintain suzerainty Norwegian on the Islands of the North and the West of the Scotland that Norwegian regarded as dependences of their kingdom.

After the ousting of the local leaders by Magnus III in 1098, Sigurd is placed nominally by his/her father of 1099 with 1103 with the heads of the the Orkneys, and the double kingdom of island of Man and of the Hébrides

In 1102 Sigurd is married with the Irish princess Biadmuine or Blathmina 6 years old. It is about a diplomatic union intended to seal the alliance of his father with that of the young wife, the king Muirchertach O' Brien, laughed Ard Érenn, supreme king of Ireland and suzerain of the Scandinavian kingdom of Dublin.

After the death of his father Magnus III, killed in August 1103 at the time of a combat in Ulster, it gives up his young wife and regains Norway in order to divide the country with his half-brothers; Old Eystein of 15 years and Olaf which was only 5 years old. The joint reign of the three brothers, seems to have been peaceful.

By concerns for appaisement the Islands of the West are officially returned into 1105 with the heirs to the dynastes killed or captured by Magnus III.

The crusader

Sigurd then decides to carry out a voyage-pilgrimage in Holy Land which is named in Saga Jorsalaland (Country of Jerusalem). This forwarding which will not last less than 3 years and which Sigurd ler leads to the head of 60 boats is lengthily described in Saga which is devoted to the reigns of wire of Magnus III. Sigurd will gain its nickname of Jorsalafare there the Crusader (textually that which went to Jerusalem)

Party probably with the autumn 1108, Norwegian winter in the United Kingdom where Sigurd is received by the king Henri Ier Beauclerc. Next spring, the fleet gains then the Galicia then the Portugal where it takes part in a vain attempt at resumption of Lisbon to the Moslems by the troops of Henri of Burgundy, count de Portugal.

In the Mediterranean, Sigurd guerroie against Arabic in the Balearic Islands in the islands of Ibiza, Formentera and Minorque. It gains then the Sicily Norman where it remains at the court of the count Roger II of Sicily. Saga specifies wrongfully that this last accepted the title of king de Sigurd whereas it was granted to him only in 1130 by the Pope!

The Norwegians gain finally the Holy Land. They unload in Joppa and the fleet takes a decisive share with the conquest of Sidon by the king of Jerusalem Baudouin of the Borough on December 19th, 1110. After a visit to Jerusalem, Sigurd goes back towards Constantinople where it is received by the Emperor Alexis Ier Comnène that Saga names " curiously; Kirialax".

The return is carried out by the terrestrial road via the Bulgaria, the Hungary and the Germanic Empire. Sigurd meets in Saxony the duke and future Emperor Lothaire de Supplinbourg.

Arrived in the the Baltic, before regaining Norway, it holds a meeting in the middle of the summer 1111 in Heidaby with the king Niels of Denmark.

The king of Norway

On its return considered as a hero, Sigurd Ier of Norway marries Malfrid a girl of the prince de Kiev Mstislav II Harald and of Christina a girl of the king de Suède Inge Ier Old the. Only one child, the princess Christina of Norway will be born from this union.

Towards 1115, king Sigurd Ier of Norway will in addition have its connection with a concubine, Borghild, girl of noble, Olaf de Dal, a Magnus son whom he will regard as his heir.

Towards 1125, Sigurd receives in Norway called Gille Christ the future Harald IV of Norway originating in Ireland brought back by Halkel Huk de More and which succeeded in convincing it, after having undergoes a ordalie consisting in going on plow shears heated to white, which he is an illegitimate son of the king Magnus III and an Irish. Sigurd agrees to recognize it provided it is committed not asserting the throne of sound living and of that of its heir the future Magnus IV to Norway. A solemn oath is lent by the people to this occasion. The relations between Magnus and Harald will start however to be degraded quickly…

In 1128, the seized king seems it of early senility decides to divorce the Malfrid queen to marry the young person Cécilia, girl of an important man according to Saga. In spite of the opposition of the Magnus bishop of Bergen and Sigurd its future successor to évêché, it can carry out his project thanks to the kindness of Reinald English whom it had made appointed first bishop of Stavanger. King Sigurd Ier of Norway dies shortly after of disease with Oslo 40 years old the March 26th 1130.

Internal bonds

Olav III of Norway

Magnus III of Norway

Sources

Heimskringla of Snorri Sturluson

Sagas off the Norse Kings " The sounds off Magnus" Chapter XIII (English translation)

Genealogy of the kings and the princes of Jean-Charles Volkmann Edict. Jean-Paul Gisserot (1998)

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