mother of sons of king Sverre of Norway - comment upon ES an

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M.Sjostrom

mother of sons of king Sverre of Norway - comment upon ES an

Legg inn av M.Sjostrom » 20 okt 2007 04:06:27

The Neue Folge (= Schwennicke) of ES and Genealogics
(presumably just because of Schwennicke) both seem to
have a belief that Sigurd Lavard and king Haakon III
of Norway, attested sons of king Sverre of Norway,
were sons of his wedded wife Margret Eiriksdottir of
Sweden.

That however is almost certainly wrong.
1. There are no near-contemporary source to say that
either of these sons were born of Margret.
2. The Saxo Grammaticus tells about Sigurd Lavard that
the boy's original name was Unas, as namesake of Unas
Kamm-makare, the husband of Sverre's mother Gunhild,
whom Sverre believed to be his own father while yet
living in the Faroe Islands. And when Sverre had risen
to kingship in Norway, he had the boy brought to him
from the Faroese, and changed his name to Sigurd, as
namesake of the Norwegian king whom Sverre had
meanwhile taken as his father.
3. Sagas narrate that Sverre's concubine in Faroe
Islands was Astrid Roesdottir, daughter of bishop Roe
of Kirkjubour, brother of Unas kamm-makare.
This has lead to conclusion that Sigurd Lavard was
born of Astrid.
4. Chronology: Sverre attestedly married the Swedish
king's daughter, Margret, only after having won the
important war, and become almost all Norway's king.
That took place in c 1185.
5. Margret of Sweden is in sagas mentioned
specifically as the mother of Kristin Sverresdottir,
king Sverre's sole legitimate daughter.
Had she been mother of either Sigurd Lavard or king
Haakon III, such thing would presumably been mentioned
in that material.
Instead, much later, even legitimate right to the
throne was derived through marriage with Kristin,
although a putative son of Haakon III lived at the
time.
6. Those primary sources mention that the younger boy,
Haakon (the future Haakon III), got his name as
namesake of king Haakon II, whom Sverre had taken as
his brother at the same point where he took the late
king Sigurd as father.
This narration indicates that possibly young Haakon's
birth and possible earlier name has similar history as
those of Sigurd Lavard's, who was formerly young Unas
from Faroese.
7. In 1202, at king Sverre's death, Haakon III was old
enough to assume the kingship, without any regency. In
other words, an adult. This indicates his birth took
place some time before marriage with Margret, and his
conception may have taken place already when Sverre
yet lived in the Faroese, i.e in c 1176.
8. the Isenburg ES assigns Sigurd Lavard and Haakon
III as sons of Astrid Roesdottir. In my opinion, that
is more credible than either of them being born of
Margret.
9. A final nail to the coffin of Margret being mother
of Haakon III comes from narrations in primary
materials about the relationship between them. When
Sverre was dead and Haakon III ascended the throne,
sagas narrate that Margret with her daughter Kristin
left the king's court. And when Haakon III died in
1204, a lot of his supporters accused the Dowager
Queen Margret as having poisoned the young king.
I believe the primary materials would have mentioned
in any of those two occasions specifically, if Haakon
III really were Margret's son. Instead, their
relationship as evidenced by those two events looks
very much like that between stepson and stepmother.
10. There is some indication of Sverre keeping Astrid
Roesdottir as his concubine fairly long, even up to
until he married Margret. This leaves yet less room
for Haakon III to have been born of someone else than
Astrid.

Does anyone know of further relevant primary sources
and what they say about this matter?


M.Sjöström


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