Haakon III of Norway
| Haakon Sverresson | |
|---|---|
| King of Norway | |
| Reign | 9 March 1202 – 1 January 1204 |
| Predecessor | Sverre |
| Successor | Guttorm |
| Born | 1170s |
| Died | 1 January 1204 |
| Burial | Old Cathedral, Bergen (destroyed in 1531) |
| Issue | Haakon IV of Norway |
| House | Sverre |
| Father | Sverre of Norway |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Haakon Sverresson (Norwegian: Håkon Sverresson, Old Norse: Hákon Sverrisson) (1182 – 1 January 1204) was King of Norway from 1202 to 1204.
Haakon was born as the second illegitimate son of the future King Sverre, then a Faroese adventurer. Historian P. A. Munch suggested that Haakon III's mother could have been Astrid Roesdatter, daughter of Bishop Roe in the Faroe Islands, but this has not been supported by later historians.
The civil war period of Norwegian history lasted from 1130 to 1240. During this period there were several interlocked conflicts of varying scale and intensity. The background for these conflicts were the unclear Norwegian succession laws, social conditions and the struggle between different aristocratic parties and between Church and King. There were then two main parties, firstly known by varying names or no names at all, but finally condensed into the parties of Bagler and Birkebeiner. The rallying point regularly was a royal son, who was set up as the leader of the party in question, to oppose the rule of king from the contesting party. Sverre and Håkon were leaders of the Birkebeiner party.
Håkon is first mentioned as one of the leaders of his father's armies in a battle against the Bagler in Oslo in 1197. Subsequently he is mentioned several times as taking part in his father's wars against the Bagler. On his deathbed his father, who died on 9 March 1202, declared that he had no other son alive than Håkon. He also wrote a letter to Håkon advising him to settle the longstanding dispute with the church. When the news of Sverre's death reached Håkon and the Birkebeiner assembled in Nidaros, Håkon was first taken as chieftain by the Birkebeiner. The same spring he was taken as king at the thing in Nidaros.
The same spring the Norwegian bishops, who had been in exile in Sweden and Denmark and had supported the Bagler, returned to Norway and made a settlement with Håkon. It seems likely that he gave in to most of their demands. Norway was released from the interdict it had been placed under during the reign of Sverre. Håkon is said to have been on friendly terms with the farmers and the common people, and the Bagler party soon lost much of its support. In the autumn of 1202, the Bagler king Inge Magnusson was killed by the local farmers of Oppland and the Bagler party in Norway was dissolved. A new Bagler pretender, Erling Steinvegg, soon appeared in Denmark, but declined to renew the fighting, as he saw little chance of succeeding against Håkon. Håkon was thus the undisputed ruler of the country.
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