Haakon IV

Haakon IV
Haakon's seal, from a 1247/48 letter (). The seal itself was given to Haakon as a gift from Henry III of England in 1236.
King of Norway
Reign	June 1217 – 16 December 1263
Coronation	29 July 1247 (Bergen)
Predecessor	Inge II
Successor	Magnus VI
Junior kings	Haakon the Young (1240–57) Magnus VI (1257–63)
Born	c. March/April 1204 Folkenborg, Norway
Died	16 December 1263(1263-12-16) (aged 59) Kirkwall, Orkney
Burial	St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall (until 1264), Old Cathedral of Bergen (destroyed in 1531)
Spouse	Margrete Skulesdotter
Issue among others...	Haakon the Young Christina, Infanta of Castile Magnus VI of Norway
House	Sverre
Father	Haakon III of Norway
Mother	Inga of Varteig
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Haakon Haakonsson (c. March/April 1204 – 16 December 1263) (Old Norse: Hákon Hákonarson; Norwegian: Håkon Håkonsson), sometimes called Haakon the Old in contrast to his son with the same name, and known in modern regnal lists as Haakon IV, was the King of Norway from 1217 to 1263. His reign lasted for 46 years, longer than any Norwegian king since Harald I. Haakon was born into the troubled civil war era in Norway, but his reign eventually managed to put an end to the internal conflicts. At the start of his reign, during his minority, his later rival Earl Skule Bårdsson served as regent. As a king of the birkebeiner faction, Haakon defeated the uprising of the final bagler royal pretender, Sigurd Ribbung, in 1227. He put a definitive end to the civil war era when he had Skule Bårdsson killed in 1240, a year after he had himself proclaimed king in opposition to Haakon. Haakon thereafter formally appointed his own son as his co-regent.

Under Haakon's rule, medieval Norway is considered to have reached its zenith or golden age. His reputation and formidable naval fleet allowed him to maintain friendships with both the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, despite their conflict. He was at different points offered the Imperial Crown by the Pope, the Irish High Kingship by a delegation of Irish kings, and the command of the French crusader fleet by the French king. He amplified the influence of European culture in Norway by importing and translating contemporary European literature into Old Norse, and by constructing monumental European-style stone buildings. In conjunction with this he employed an active and aggressive foreign policy, and at the end of his rule added Iceland and the Norse Greenland community to his kingdom, leaving Norway at its territorial height. Although he for the moment managed to secure Norwegian control of the islands off the northern and western shores of Great Britain, he fell ill and died when wintering in Orkney following some military engagements with the expanding Scottish kingdom.