Medieval Norway

The first settlers who pushed the nomadic Finnish tribes northward, far beyond their previous distribution, were the ancestors of the present inhabitants of Norway and belonged to a separate Scandinavian tribe related to the Danes and Angles. Regarding how this settlement happened, opinions differ. Munh and his scholars argue that Norway was settled from the north, and that then the settlers settled on the west bank and in the center. Later historians, on the contrary, suggest that the settlement took place from south to north - an opinion confirmed by archaeological excavations. From the ancient sagas it can be concluded that in remote times the Norwegians occupied the region from the southern part of the Vick gulf to Drontheim (Nidarose), but, like their neighbors, the Goths and the Swedes, did not form a cohesive political whole. The population disintegrated into 20-30 separate groups called fylke (people). Each fulka had its own king, or jarl, except when military happiness was joined by several fylks under the authority of one king. In the people, however, the consciousness of the need to work out some kind of law that would regulate mutual relations of the yachts and prevent constant strife between them would manifest itself early. For this purpose several flocks were united into one common colleague (thinp). Ting convened in a certain place in a good time of year. It was attended by all free members of society, but the cases were decided by special commissioners appointed by each king individually and forming a supreme assembly or supreme court; persons who were dependent on the king were not allowed into their ranks. In later times, the country was divided into four large districts, each with its own individual ting, with its own individual laws and customs; namely: Frostatbing, which concluded the yachts located north of the Sognefjord; Gulathing, which covered the southwestern fyulki, and the tings of Upland and Vike, which included the entire country to the south and east of the Central Mountain Range and gathered first together in Eyzating, but subsequently the district of Vika separated and formed a separate ting.

Inside he existed a division into herad (hundreds); at the head of the Gerada stood hersir, who held this position by inheritance law and was in charge of the civil and religious affairs of the district. The kings, called yngling, were considered descended from God (for some of them, they were called jarls) and were representatives of funds in foreign affairs and leaders of troops in a war, but their rights were generally very dependent on their personal qualities and on the size of their personal possessions; besides, all the most important matters were decided by the people themselves, the peasants (bonde), on the thing. The peasants paid the king the virus if they broke the peace and brought voluntary gifts to the king. If the king "did violence instead of right," then an arrow was sent to all the inhabitants of the fylka as a sign that the king should be captured and killed. If you could not kill, the king was eternally expelled from the country. The rights to the throne were, on an equal basis with the legal ones, and illegitimate children, the origin of which was proved by iron testing.

Ancient Norse society, therefore, consisted of two classes: princes and free villagers, or peasants. In strict subjection to them were not free people, or slaves, with whom they treated, however, not severely. These were, for the most part, prisoners. In earthly life, they depended completely on the arbitrariness of their masters, and after their death they were not allowed into Valhalla, where only free people who died in battle were accepted. Two free classes did not form separate castes. The title of peasant was considered an honor. Admission to the service of the king was considered shameful for the peasants and was imposed in some cases in the form of punishment. The king was the most large landowner and ruled his lands with the help of persons called armadr. At the court of the king lived a detachment of warriors; they were the choice, the bravest people, called the household people. They were dependent on the king, why they were not counted as independent people, although they enjoyed complete personal freedom.

The lessons of the ancient Norse were war, predatory raids, military exercises and hunting. They organized feasts, attended by women, loved to have fun, but at the same time they were eager for glory to die a heroic death. Even women went to battles. Belief in destiny, which no one can escape, elevated the courage of the Norwegians. They believed that the victory was decided by Odin and therefore they boldly went into battle. These stern people, however, loved poetry. The kings of sea robbers often went into battle, surrounded by skalds, who were awarded gold and full of booty ships. Due to the physical characteristics of the country, communal ownership has not developed in it; the land constituted the private property of the owner, who either himself used it or gave his people to use it. The land was usually inherited by the eldest son; the younger ones received their share of money, and then went to seek their own happiness in a foreign land. This state of affairs, due to the scarcity of the soil, the thirst for fame and enrichment, increased the passion for expeditions to foreign lands, so that already in the VIII century the Norwegians began to terrify their neighboring countries with their raids. When, at the end of the 9th century, vast states began to form in Norway, the kings of which constrained the freedom of individual districts, the number of those leaving for long voyages increased even more. Sometimes they set out on their campaign, for conquest or plunder, the kings themselves, wanting to glorify their name. Only those expeditions called by the princes, called sea kings, were called honorable.

Two periods of Viking expeditions are distinguished: in the first, the Norwegians swim across the sea in small detachments, attack only the shores and islands and retreat home when winter comes; in the second period, they gather with large troops, go far from the coast, stay for the winter in a country that is being robbed, take possession of it, build fortifications there, settle in them. This period begins in some of the lands visited by the Vikings earlier, in others later - in Ireland in 835, at the mouth of the Loire - about the same. of time, in England and along the lower reaches of the Seine, in 851. Even in present-day Turkey, the Norwegians visited, where they were attracted by the riches of Constantinople, which they called Mykklgord.

At the end of the 9th century, Norway rallied into one kingdom, and since then there is more reliable information about its fate. On the west bank of Vic, the present Christiansfjord, was a small area of ​​Westerfüld, ruled by the descendants of kings, which, according to popular legend, never reigned in Uppsala. The first king of Westerfjord, who left behind his memory, was Gafdan Cherny, who, in part due to family ties, partly, through conquest, annexed to his kingdom all the areas near the upper extremity of the gulf and stretched inland to Lake Miezen. Gafdan died early, leaving a ten-year-old son, Harald Garfagr (863). The latter continued the work begun by the father, subordinating neighboring Yarls and kings to his authority and establishing autocracy in Norway. He succeeded, but the proud ancestors reluctantly obeyed the king, who had previously been equal; very many notable people were driven out by Harald for resisting him and swam to seek new lands for themselves. After all, the area lying south of the Sognefjord was subordinated. Its leaders gathered a significant army, but Harald (885) defeated the fierce battle of the Hapursfjord. Harald made a complete revolution in the economic and social system of the country. The masses of those dissatisfied with the destruction of the old liberties left for Iceland, on the Shetland, Hebrides, and Orkney Islands. From here they often raided the coasts of Norway, but Harald defeated them and put the Norwegian Jarls on the islands. By the end of his life, Harald changed the principle of autocracy: he divided the country between his sons, singling out each one for the kingdom, and for the descendants of the female line he gave the county with the title of jarl. Only 16 kingdoms were formed, the connection between which Harald thought to preserve, declaring his eldest son Erich the senior king. Harald was still alive when Erich made an attempt to establish a single monarchy again and received the nickname of the Bloody Sekira for exterminating the brothers. His stern, tyrannical character helped to revive the reaction, excited by the strict control of Harald. In the year of the death of the latter (936), his youngest son Hacon appeared on the scene, born of a slave and given up to Ethelstan in English. Gakon was chosen by the king after he solemnly promised the peasants to restore their ancient rights and return their ancestral lands to them. Erich was supposed to leave for England. Hakon the Good fulfilled their promises. Baptized at the court of Etelstan, Hakon made an attempt to restore Christianity in Norway, but the peasants abruptly refused and insisted that the king unswervingly perform pagan rituals, so there was almost no rupture between him and the people. After Gakon, a number of kings, of which the most famous - Olaf I Trygveson (995-11001) and Olaf II Tolstoy (1015-1024), tried to restore Christianity, withstanding a stubborn struggle with the people. Thanks to his personal qualities, Olaf Trygveson became the favorite hero of Norwegian history. Olaf II Tolstoy, nicknamed after his death as a saint and considered the patron of Norway, was the great-grandson of Harald Garfagr. He united all of Norway under his rule, rebuilt Nidaros, founded by Olaf Trygveson and then destroyed, and made him the capital of the state. He was a zealous Christian; the age-old resistance of the people to the new faith was suppressed. Having approved Christianity, Olaf changed the laws of the country according to the new conditions of life and compiled a church code. The powerful births that enjoyed the complete independence of his ancestors, should have been subject to him. He destroyed the heredity of the posts of Lendermen and Versians. Even the title of Eagle was destroyed; The closest assistant to the king in war and peacetime was called a jarl. With other kings, the labels joined the fight against the royal power and received tremendous significance, which most often happened during the early years of the kings. Neighboring kings, Swedish and Danish, tried their best to harm the king of Norway. Although the Swedish king Olaf Loved, he was eventually forced to reconcile with him at the insistence of his peasants and even give him his daughter, but Danut constantly brought up insurrections against him and supported the insurgents. Olaf took advantage of the departure of Canute to Rome to attack his state, but Canute returned and drove the enemies away and sailed to Norway the next year. The people, annoyed against Olaf for his willful government, swore to Kanouta. Olaf was forced to flee and found shelter at Yaroslav in Kiev. In 1029 he gathered an army and sailed to Norway, but at Stiklestad he was met by a Norwegian army, three times more numerous, and he was killed. Canute appointed his son Svend as governor of Norway; but the unbearable harassment that the Norwegians had to endure under the Danish yoke stirred up their irritation, and everyone remembered Olaf with bitter regret. The very people who killed Olaf brought his ten-year-old son Magnus from Kievan Rus and proclaimed him king. Svend fled to Denmark, with which a treaty was concluded: Magnus was to become king of Denmark after the death of Gardikanuta. When the latter died, the power of Magnus was indeed recognized in Denmark. He appointed Sven as his vicar, but a year later Sven refused to obey him. Magnus won several battles, but after winning a big battle on the island of Zeeland (1047) he was killed. His successor, Harald the Severe, led the relentless war with the Danes: he was called the northern lightning, the destroyer of the Danish islands. He became interested in the hope of conquering England, swam there and died. After this came the more peaceful reign of Olaf the Calm, who ruled Norway peacefully for 27 years. In his reign, Norway has achieved significant prosperity. After the death of Olaf, in 1095, Norway was again divided into two states, and endless quarrels arose, until one of the kings, Magnus Barfood, became the sovereign of united Norway again. He made expeditions to foreign countries, conquered the Hebrides and Orcadian Islands and the English Isle of Man and died in Ireland in 1103. His sons, Erich and Sigurd, succeeded him. The first, by wise management, contributed to the peaceful accession of Norway to new areas, built churches, monasteries, etc. Sigurd, on the contrary, was distinguished by the brave, restless spirit of the ancient Vikings. In 1107-1111 he embarked on a crusade in sv. Land and returned with a multitude of looted treasures. In Jerusalem, he pledged before the patriarch to arrange a bishopric in Norway and establish church tithe, which he fulfilled.

After the death of Sigurd (1130), a long period of internecine wars begins. The state was sometimes fragmented between several sovereigns, sometimes united under the authority of one. The clergy managed to take advantage of the time of troubles to extend their rights and privileges. This greatly weakened the royal power, which in Norway could never have received so much importance as in the rest of Europe, because the rights of the Norwegian people were very extensive, and he stubbornly defended them, defending themselves from any attempts to subjugate them. The Norwegian aristocracy became more and more distant from the people and, after the introduction of Christianity, began to draw closer to the clergy, seeking, in aggregate, to concentrate in their hands the government of the country. In 1161, during the reign of Gacon Gardabright, Norway was visited by a papal legate, who forced him to recognize the prohibition of marriages of priests and introduced various other reforms. In Bergen, he anointed the reign of the 8-year-old Magnus, who was elected king in 1162. Magnus came from Harald by mother; the church, having consecrated his inheritance rights, enabled a number of descendants of royal daughters to lay claim to the Norwegian throne. King Magnus in 1174, according to Eustein, the archbishop of Nidaros promulgated a law called the Golden Pen's charter and granted the Norwegian clergy very large rights. Magnus, who called himself the king of God's grace in this charter, promised to set tithe in favor of the church, refused any interference in the election of bishops and other church dignitaries, and gave the archbishop of Nidaros and his spiritual advisors a predominant influence in deciding which of the sons or relatives the king must be given the crown. Thus, the appointment of the king by the national assembly was replaced in Norway by the influence of the clergy and the coronation. This was explained by the fact that each king received Norway as flax from St. Olaf. The people could not calmly endure such a violation of their rights and rose up under the leadership of Eystein Meil, who called himself the grandson of one of the Norwegian kings, Harald Gille. A struggle arose between two parties, one of which was called Berezonogoy (birkebeiners), and the other was Krivozvezlova (buglers), from a curved bishop's baton. The birch-fronts opposed the expansion of the rights of the clergy and defended the rights of the people; The struggle continued for more than a century and caused a number of coups. The Birkebeiners were already close to death when they were headed by the former priest of Sverri, an Icelander by birth, posing as the son of King Sigurd Munds. In 1184, Magnus was killed, and Sverri was elected king. His reign is a new era in the history of Norway; he delivered a decisive blow to both allies - the clergy and the aristocracy - and approved the democratic principles on which the Norwegian state was based. He destroyed the power of the nobility, appointing to govern the country new individuals who depended solely on him; titles have been preserved, but now they represented no more than an empty sound. He also destroyed the predominance of the clergy on the grounds that the king receives his title from God and rules over all his subjects. The clergy rebelled against him, Pope Innocent III excommunicated him, all the bishops left Norway, but Sverri remained adamant. If he failed to bring the matter of centralization to an end, then only because he had to fight all the time not only with internal, but also with external enemies. The struggle continued even after his death (1202), both under his son Gakon and during the interregnum period when the barbequeers appointed one king, and the spiritual party another, until Sverri's side grandson, Gakon, was recognized as king by parties at a meeting in Bergen, attended by high clergy, Labas and peasants.

For Norway, a period of peaceful development has begun. Hakon did not agree to recognize the letters of the Golden Pen, but at the same time he acted as a mediator between the peasants and the clergy. In the case of jurisdiction, the clergy were granted complete independence from the civil court; it elected its dignitaries without royal intervention, and the church estates were declared free from conscription. In gratitude, the clergy helped Gakon to conquer almost all of Iceland and Greenland. His son, Magnus VI, came to the throne (1263) no longer by choice on the thing, but by the will of his father, who offered the people to swear allegiance to him before the supposed march to Denmark and promulgated the law of succession in 1257, which destroyed the influence of the bishops on this matter and prevented the fragmentation of the state into parts. Magnus maintained peace within the state and the world with his neighbors and earned the name of the Improver of Laws (Laegebaetr); he established a general law for the whole kingdom, laying in its foundation the old legislation of the country, gulading, frostating, etc. The punishments were relaxed, more precise rules of succession were established, completely eliminating the election of the king. Significant changes made to the state. system, was to increase the value of the royal service people and the rise of the power of the king. “Best of all, if there are no yarlov”, - says in the court code of Magnus. Subsequent kings followed the same policy. King Gakon (1319) completely destroyed the title of lendermen without meeting any resistance: the lendermen ceased to be the leaders of the people, representing only large free landowners, and did not acquire such preeminent significance that would create a separate estate among them that ranks first with the kings. In general, it was not possible to land the peasants and, having concentrated land ownership in their hands, to create a leading position in the state of the Norwegian aristocracy, as there was no intermediate landless, fully dependent on it class on which it could rely in its struggle with the kings. Thus, Norway has remained the country of peasants - small landowners. Hakon died without male heirs, and since his mother’s minor Swedish king Magnus Erichsen was Gakon’s grandson, the Norwegians elected him as their king: the throne of Norway passed into the Swedish line, and both countries retained their laws and their supreme soviets. In Norway, there were 4 local councils (Orething) and one general council, which gathered mostly in Bergen. Larger cities had their own self-government.

Since that time, the history of Norway is inseparably linked with the history of other Scandinavian states and loses its independent meaning. Norway is in the wake of Sweden, participating in the wars of Sweden with the Hansa, which strengthened the latter’s dominance and delayed the development of Norwegian trade for a long time. In Norway, all power was concentrated in the hands of officials; there was neither an aristocracy, nor a standing national assembly that could counter them, although the peasants and cities kept their original liberties. In 1349 a plague broke out, killing more than a third of the country's population. The Norwegians urgently demanded the presence of the king, and Magnus in 1350 sent his youngest son, Gakon, 12, as king. In 1376, the Swedish State Council, upon the termination of the male line of the reigning dynasty, chose four-year-old Olaf, the son of the Norwegian king Gakon and his wife Margaret, to be king, and Margaret was appointed regent. After that, Hansa recognized the Danish king Olaf. Thus, all 3 Scandinavian states merged into one. When Hakon of Norway died in 1380, Margarita was recognized as Norwegian regent. But her power in Denmark and Norway was very weak. In 1387, Olaf died, and both the Danish and Norwegian Seimas elected Margarita as Queen, and in 1388 the Swedes elected her Queen of Sweden. Choosing Margarita, the Norwegian Diet recognized her as the heir of her sister's grandson, Erich of Pomerania. In 1396 (July), the Danish and Swedish Seimas promised that after coming of age, Erich would be given control of their states and that the Scandinavian states would not wage war between themselves. To strengthen the position of her heir, Margaret convened the state councils of all three kingdoms in Kalmar; in June 1397 they developed a law called the Kalmar Union. On the basis of his Denmark, Norway and Sweden were always to have one king, elected from the dynasty of Erich in the line of birthright; Scandinavian states should not fight each other, but should protect each other when enemies attack; treaties with foreign states should be common to all three states; declared by the rebel in one of them must be prosecuted in the other two, but each of the three Scandinavian states maintains its own specific laws. The Kalmar Union brought little benefit to the Scandinavian states; they were involved by it in the policy of conquest, which the ruling dynasty adhered to and which brought them much harm. Norway had to sacrifice for several decades for purposes that were completely unknown to it, pay huge taxes for the costs of wars alien to its interests. Norwegians have never seen the King, but his officials oppressed the people, pulled out all the juices from the country, forced them to take a bad coinage at a nominal price. The Norwegians asked to send them the governor if the king could not come himself; having neither aristocracy, nor a general Diet, they needed the king’s immediate concern for their affairs of state — but they were ignored. “We are ruled by foreign cruel fohts, we have neither order in a coin, nor a governor, nor even a seal, so the Norwegians must run after their seal abroad,” the Norwegians complain in 1420. Hence the hostile attitude to the dominion of foreign kings. and a whole series of unrest arose; the people refused to obey foreigners and energetically resisted all sorts of attempts on local laws and customs. The troubles in Denmark gave the Norwegians the opportunity to defend their independence and turn the union into personal and equal rights (1450). Each state retained its own individual name and its laws, was governed by its own compatriots, had its own individual finances and treasury. Chosen by the Norwegian king Karl Knudson gave his rights to the king to the Danish Christian I. It was decided that Norway would always have in common with Denmark the king; the choice of the king must take place in Galmstadt, and if the king of Christians leaves behind his sons, they must first of all be subject to election. From then on, Norway had until 1814 common kings with Denmark.

Throughout the 15th century and until 1536, when the liberties of Norway were finally suppressed, the Norwegians did not cease to worry and resent against any encroachment on their rights. They recognized the Danish kings only after long hesitations and resistance. The fact that the most important and ancient colonies, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, were given by Christian I in 1468 as a pledge to the Scottish king and have not been bought back since, so they remained in the possession of Scotland, especially resented the Norwegians. Armed uprisings against foreigners were constantly taking place. After the Danish king Christian II, expelled from Denmark and supported by Norway, was captured by the Danes and deposed, the Danish rigsdag in 1536, in spite of the Union of Kalmar, turned Norway from an equal member of the union into a subordinate province. A separate Norwegian Sejm, separate army and navy, separate finances, etc. were destroyed. The Supreme Norwegian court was destroyed; all processes were decided in Copenhagen by Danish judges; Bishops were ordained there, young people who devoted themselves to state and church service studied there. Norwegian soldiers and sailors joined the ranks of the Danish fleet and troops. The administration of Norway was entrusted to the Danish Vogts, sent by the Danish government and completely independently disposing of it. The only thing that the Danes did not dare to touch upon is the rights to the land of the peasants, “odelsret”. The loss of political autonomy had a depressing effect on the development of Norway. She seemed to be frozen in place, especially after the introduction of the Reformation, which was established in Norway in almost the same violent ways as Christianity. Norway's trade was destroyed by the almighty Hansa; the industry has not developed. Both the country's finances and its population suffered from constant wars with Sweden, whose soldiers devastated its border areas. At the same time, Sweden captured three Norwegian regions: Yemtland, Herjesdalen and Boguslen. Full mental stagnation reigns in the mental life. Even the rewriting of old manuscripts ceased; it was possible to think that the Norwegians even forgot to read, says one writer. But if in these relations the dominance of Denmark had an adverse effect on Norway, but in others it acted favorably, directing the life of Norway along the channel along which it began to go, and strengthening the democratic principles that laid the foundation of its state system. The last remnants of feudalism disappeared in the 17th century, and the new aristocracy could not be formed due to the absence of a court, the absence of a king, and a constant change of officials who were an alien element and could not take firm roots in the country.

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• Norway // Encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 tons (82 tons and 4 extra). - SPb. , 1890-1907.