Håkon III. (Norway)

Håkon III. Sverresson (* around / after 1170; † 1 January 1204), old Norse: Hákon Sverrisson, was Birkebeinerkönig from Norway from 1202.

He was born as the second illegitimate son Sverres, King of Norway, 1184-1202, but still an adventurer on the Faroe Islands, and his concubine Astrid Roesdatter.

The civil war in Norway from 1130 to 1240 had various reasons, including an ambiguous succession in the event of the death of the respective king, social circumstances, the power struggle between church and king, and disputes between different nobility families, which ultimately led to the formation of two parties - the Bagler and Birkebeiner. At the same time, the followers of the individual parties usually gathered around the son of a king to underpin their claim to power.

Håkon is mentioned for the first time in 1197 on the occasion of a battle against the Bagler in Oslo as one of the leaders of the army of his father and subsequently as a participant in these battles. On the deathbed, Sverre explained that Håkon was his only living son, and he wrote a letter to him, asking him to settle the conflict with the Church. Håkon was an educated man and considered as a translator of the legend of Barlaam and Josaphat from the Latin to the Norra language.

The main sources of Håkon's life are the Sverris saga and the Bagler sagas, both shortly after the corresponding events in the 13th century. Single-level Edit source text Weblinks Edit sourcetext

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