Sigurd the Crusader
Sigurd I, known as the Jerusalem driver ( altwestnord. Sigurðr Jórsalafari, * 1090, † March 26, 1130 in Oslo ) was King of Norway and the Isle of Man.
Life
Sigurd was with his brothers, the first four years of Olaf and King Øystein 1103, when her father Magnus Barfot ( Barefoot ) had fallen in England. Previously, he had been appointed to in 1098 by the father as Earl of Orkney, which he returned in 1103 to the legitimate heirs.
In 1107 the then 17 - year-old king (reportedly 60 ships) ran out with a large fleet to participate the first king on the second part of the First Crusade. He wintered in England, Galicia and Sicily, fighting on the road against the Andalusian Moors, came in 1110 in Palestine. There he was received by King Baldwin, bathed in the Jordan, visited the holy sites and participated in the siege and capture of Sidon. From Jerusalem he brought a splinter of the Holy Cross, a gift from the king of Jerusalem. On the way back he visited Constantinople in 1111 Opel, from where he returned by land to the home.
From the death of his brother Øystein 1123, had by 1107 to 1111 enjoyed independence abandoned only reluctantly, he was the sole ruler of Norway. Sigurd was dedicated to the strengthening of the church, he led his country to a church tithe and founded, inter alia, also the bishopric of Gardar for Greenland. According to the Heimskringla he submitted in 1123 and Småland.
In the last years of Sigurd Jorsalafari suffered from a mental illness that made him restless and violent.
Shortly before his death appeared Harald Gille from Ireland and claimed to be a son of Magnus Barfot and a brother Sigurd. 1129 he put in Sem successfully from the iron sample to proof. Sigurd Harald recognized as a brother and ordered that the people should also worship him. Harald but had to pledge not to use lifetime of Sigurd and his son Magnus the throne. After his death, however, broke out between Harald and Magnus from the dispute over the throne, which led to a protracted civil war.
On March 26, 1130 Sigurd died in Oslo and got in the south wall of the newly Hallvardskirche his grave lay.
Marriages and descendants
In 1102 Sigurd had been engaged at the age of nine with the five-year Biadmunia, the daughter of the High King of Ireland Muirchertach MacToirdelbach. The promise of marriage was null and void after Magnus ' death in 1103 and was canceled again.
In 1117 he married his first wife, Malmfred, daughter of Mstislav I of Novgorod and Kristina Inge yolk from Sweden. With her he had one daughter:
- Kristin Sigurdsdatter (* 1125, † 1178 ) ∞ 1155 Erling Ormson († 1179 )
Malmfred was cast in 1128 by Sigurd. In the same year he married his second wife, and against the protest of the bishops of Bergen and Stavanger Cecilia, the daughter of an influential nobility.
His only son and successor, who was born 1115 Magnus, came from an extramarital relationship with an unknown woman.
Artistic Desk
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson wrote in 1872 a play Sigurd Jorsalfar to the Edvard Grieg incidental music, Op 22 composed.