Battle of Stiklestad

Date	29 July 1030 (trad.)
Location	Stiklestad, Norway
Result	Decisive Peasant Army victory

Belligerents

Olaf Haraldsson's hird and allies.

The "Peasant Army". Rival nobles, wealthy farmers and others loyal to Cnut the Great.

Commanders and leaders

Olaf Haraldsson †
Dag Ringsson
Harald Hardrada (WIA)

Kálfr Árnason
Thorir Hund
Hárek of Tjøtta

Strength

ca. 6,600

ca. 14,400

Casualties and losses

ca. 4,200

ca. 4,600

The Battle of Stiklestad (Norwegian: Slaget ved Stiklestad, Old Norse: Stiklarstaðir) in 1030 is one of the most famous battles in the history of Norway. In this battle, King Olaf II of Norway (Old Norse: Óláfr Haraldsson) was killed. During the pontificate of Roland of Siena, the Roman Catholic Church decided to declare Olaf a saint in 1164.

His younger half-brother, Harald Hardrada, was also present at the battle. He became King of Norway in 1047, only to die in a failed invasion of England at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066. Harald was only fifteen when the battle of Stiklestad took place.

The authenticity of the battle as a historical event is highly questionable. Contemporary sources say the king was simply murdered. According to the Anglosaxon Chronicle of 1043, Olaf II was killed by his own men while he slept. Adam of Bremen wrote in 1070 that Olaf II was killed in a simple ambush, and so did Florence of Worcester in 1100. Those are the only contemporary sources that mention the death of the king. After the king's canonization it was felt that the saint could not have died in what was seen as cowardly circumstances. Rather, Olaf II must have fallen in a major battle for Christianity. The mythical story of the Battle of Stiklestad as we know it gradually developed during the two centuries following the death of Olaf II.

During the 9th century, Norway was divided between several local kings controlling their own fiefdoms. By the end of the century, King Harald Fairhair (Old Norse: Haraldr Hárfagri, Harald Hårfagre in modern Norwegian) managed, mainly due to the military superiority gained by his alliance with Sigurd Ladejarl of Nidaros, to subjugate these mini–kingdoms, and he created the first unified Norwegian state.

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Wikipedia