or pope, with whom we have had to deal, and that kingship brought to him, in his own sad words, "more trouble and sorrow than peace and pleasure"; and he passed away at any rate comforted with the feeling that he had won the love of his followers, and was to his last day "the defender of his native land." CHAPTER XIII. HAAKON SVERRESSØN TO THE DEATH OF HAAKON HAAKONSSØN. The Truce with the Church-Erik Returns-Haakon Dies SuddenlyInternal Struggles-Inge Baardssøn-Haakon Haakonssøn cared for by the Birkebeiner-Proclaimed King-End of the Struggle between the Birkebeiner and Baglers-Death of Bishop Nicholas of Oslo-Duke Skule Killed-Cardinal William of Sabina Crowns Haakon The Cardinal's Mission-Haakon's Legislation-Union with Iceland-New Law of Succession-Death of HaakonPapal Letters during his Reign. AT the time of Sverre's death, his only surviving, but illegitimate son Haakon was at Nidaros. Tidings of the event were conveyed in great haste to him, and he was at once proclaimed king, and soon after formally accepted by the Thing. Sverre's other son, Sigurd, who died in 1200, had left a son, who, however, was only an infant, and no claim on his behalf was then advanced. Haakon was at this time a young man of great promise, and well beloved by all the Birkebeiner party; he was an excellent speaker, and of most kindly and generous disposition. In person he was of commanding height, and his skill in war had been abundantly proved in the many conflicts in which he had taken part. Like his father, he was a man of education far beyond the average of the kings of his time, and a translation from the Latin ascribed to him still survives.* Sverre before his death had written to Haakon with *This was the "Barlaam's and Josafat's Saga," a religious romance, originally written in Greek about the eighth century (traditionally by John of Damascus) and afterwards translated into Latin. The Norse version is ascribed also to Haakon the Younger, a son of Haakon Haakonssøn, who died in 1257. reference to the quarrel with the bishops, and urged his son to make peace with them. Accordingly the first step of Haakon, after his succession, was to recall the fugitive bishops, who gladly availed themselves of the offer of peace, and by the summer of 1202, Erik and the others returned to their sees. It now seemed as if an era of peace and tranquillity was about to dawn once more on the land, for both parties were exhausted by the prolonged conflict and anxious for a settlement. When the prelates had come back, the king issued a letter "to the archbishop, bishops, clergy, and bønder," in which he expressed his willingness to grant to the Church all its rights and privileges; but with this important reservation added: "My kingdom and my full royal rights unimpaired, in agreement with the arrangement made by Cardinal Nicholas, and agreed to by the three kings, Eystein, Sigurd, and Inge, and which King Eystein's letter witnesses, and King Magnus confirmed, as also my father by his letter . . . whilst the Church and all the clergy agree to pay to me that homage and honour they are bound to offer to their lawful king." It will be seen by this that the peace between the king and the Church, was after all merely an armistice, and that all the critical points in the dispute were practically passed over by a kind of tacit agreement. In other words, both parties were content to let matters stand "as in 1152," and we know that Sverre regarded the burning question of the right of the appointment of the bishops by the Crown, as unimpaired by Cardinal Nicholas's arrangement, when there was only one king in the land. The archbishop now took off the excommunication on Sverre's adherents, and removed any of the restrictions which had followed the Interdict, and all parties in Norway were for the time satisfied. Not so Innocent III. When information reached him of the death of Sverre, and of the events which we have just From a Photograph by] [T. Olaf Willson. [To face p. 186. |