King Erik who ruled from 1389 to 1442 was mentioned in the first documents about the revolt of Hallvard Gråtopp but not after that. This may be because the first documents had a connection with Akershus and the King's men there while the later documents were either from private persons such as Sigrid Galle and Olav Bukk or from the Church's men.
Erik of Pomerania was in Norway only once, in 1405, when he was 23 years old. This was seven years before Queen Margrete died. She had managed to get her sister's grandson Erik crowned king of those three northern kingdoms at a huge festival in Kalmar, Sweden, in 1397 but she herself continued to rule with a firm hand as long as she was alive.
There is a very special document about that trip of Erik's to Norway, an interesting piece of writing authored by Margrete herself. It is written on paper rather than parchment but has nevertheless survived until now. Erik and Margrete were together in Trollhättan in Sweden at the end of January on 1405. From there Erik traveled alone and entered Norway near Vinger in the middle of February.
This Piece of Writing by Queen Margrete has a total of 54 paragraphs and gives precise directions for the young King. Point number six tells how he should behave as a King:
The next points charged the King always to have his armed men with him. Additionally, she wanted him, as far as possible, to avoid chairing court sessions in the districts even if he were requested to do so.
Points number 10 and 11 are particularly interesting because they state the following:
Agmund Berdorsson Bolt was the Castellan at Akershus in 1405 but was removed by King Erik that year. This probably was done because Agmund was not immediately willing to give the King all those important state papers, documents and records. They were nevertheless transferred to the Kalundborg Castle in Denmark so that Queen Margrete and the King would have them at hand.
Agmund Berdorsson or Bergtorsson was the son of Bergtor Kolbeinsson, of a family of the high nobility from the Borgar District in Østfold. Queen Margrete had appointed him as Lord of the Castle in 1388. As the Feudal Lord, Agmund had responsibility for the archives and the treasury ("kongens fatebur") at Akershus and, together with the Bishop of Oslo, Eystein Aslaksson, he had responsibility for the daily activity of the national government in Eastern Norway.
Agmund participated in the great Kalmar meeting in 1397 and at that time refused, along with those other Norwegians, to set his seal under the draft of the Union Document. The leader of the revolt in 1436, Amund Sigurdsson Bolt, was the son of Agmund's brother. Agmund himself had three daughters. One was Borghild who was married to the foreign bailiff in the Borgar District, Herman Molteke; the second daughter was married to the Swedish man of high nobility, Peder Ulvsson of the Roos family. Agmund died in 1418. His dismissal from the position of Castellan was connected with the alteration of the feudal government in Norway to a more personal royal government.
In the Introductory Text from Margrete nothing is written about Lord Agmund's dismissal but she had earlier given King Erik the advice to dismiss Agmund. In the text it says, among other things:
This document gives a good view into the personality of Queen Margrete who in 1405 was a woman of approximately 50 years. She takes into considerations almost everything possible and thinks carefully through what could happen and how the young King should act at every particular occasion.
The Man Whom The Queen Wanted as Chancellor in Norway was undoubtedly a German, the Knight Claus Grupendal. She realized that his choice would cause resistance in Norway. It was bad enough that she had taken the Norwegian National Seal to Denmark; a strong demand to get it back developed. It is obvious that Margrete wanted to be certain that the man who would have the Seal in Norway would be entirely "her man". The National Seal did not come back after her death either and the Norwegian National Council could not properly take actions on its own without the Seal.
Finally Queen Margrete gave a completely personal admonition:
This indicates that Margrete herself was like this; Erik was certainly not like that. Margrete must have believed that there was a possibility, at any rate, that he could be like that also. He could not. Erik was completely impetuous and fickle all his life.
On One Point Erik Followed in the footsteps of Margrete completely; he continued her Union
Policy faithfully but not in the same flexible manner. In this endeavor, he governed with two or
three faithful Norwegian National Council Members. Among these the foremost were Eindrid
Erlendsson and later his son Erland Eindridsson.
Otherwise Erik supported himself with foreigners as his leading people in Norway, mainly Danes and Germans. In 1420 that Danish Chancellor of his, Jens Jakobsson, became Bishop of Oslo. He replaced another Dane who had also been Bishop and Norwegian Chancellor. That gave them both temporal and ecclesiastical power. Previously, the Dean of the Royal Maria Church in Oslo had been the Norwegian Chancellor. Erik did not bother to observe this tradition.
Foreigners Were Also Feudal Lords at the most important fortresses. At Akershus, for example, the Jutlander, that is, a Dane, Tymme Jonsson was in charge until 1430 when he was followed by Svarte Jøns from Skåne which, although it is now in Sweden, was at that time a part of Denmark. All this had extremely serious consequences for the Norwegian Nobility. It had been and was completely essential for them to be entrusted with castles and fiefs.
In Sweden, Erik practiced the same policy. The Swedish nobility only retained fiefs in Finland while Danes and other foreigners obtained fiefs in Sweden. Danish and German bailiffs were supposed to help Erik force the country into the Nordic Federation.
Erik also continued Margrete's Church policy. In 1433, three of the five bishops were Danes, among them Jens Jakobsson in Oslo and Arent Klementsson in Hamar.
By giving castles and fiefs to foreigners and to faithful royal servants, Erik established the economic basis for the steady ruination of the Norwegian chieftains. The circle of men in the National Council decreased and new members were seldom appointed to it.
In the areas of trade policies and foreign policies Erik came into conflict after a while with the German Hanseatic League. The King was demanding and obstinate and would not make any compromises. War ensued, an expensive war, which demanded new and large tax burdens. The Hanseatic League moreover implemented a trade blockade.
The Swedish Mining District (called Bergslagen in Swedish) had exported copper and iron to Europe for a long time and the many districts in Dalarna and Uppland which the mining operations had made populous were more dependent on the trade system of the Hanseatic League than any other area in the North. It is therefore not surprising that the revolt against King Erik began precisely there.
In the early summer of 1434, a large army of bönder traveled southward from that mining district. They were under the leadership of Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, a miner who was a member of the lower nobility. In August, Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson forced the Swedish National Council which was gathered in Vadstena to disavow service and allegiance to King Erik. The Swedes accused the King of the same wrongs as the Norwegians did when the revolt occurred there two years later.
In Connection With Hallvard Gråtopp the king is mentioned in the first letters from August of 1438 but it is mainly as a national symbol and as the highest man in the power hierarchy. Sebjørn Niklisson thus promised on 10 August 1438 that he never more "would oppose my gracious Lord King or any of those who on his behalf are castellans at Akershus". Sigrid Galle wrote on 25 September 1439 that she brings "this case first before God in heaven, then before my Lord King and before the National Council in Norway and before every honorable man so they can settle it according to the law of the land".
In later documents the King is not mentioned either directly or indirectly. It is clear nevertheless that it was the Union Policy of King Erik which to large degree caused the unrest both in Norway and in Sweden. The higher nobility in Denmark were not satisfied either with having too strong a monarchy.
In the autumn of 1436 both the Danish and the Swedish National Councils forced the King to accept their policies but he did not like to be a "yes man" for the chieftains, said he. For four years, a fierce struggle between the King and both the Danish and Swedish National Councils continued. The King settled down on Gotland but also had some Danish castles and the leaders of the Norwegian nobility remained faithful to him. Nevertheless, in 1442 the Norwegians finally followed their neighbors and dismissed him. By then he had been their king at least in name since 1389.
Erik of Pomerania stayed on Gotland for ten years as a kind of pirate king until 1449. He then went home to Pomerania to be king there and finally died ten years later at the age of about 77 years. He is buried in the beautiful Maria Church in Rugenwalde. His Queen Filippa died in Vadstena in 1430 and is buried there.
2. Svarte Jøns, Castellan at Akershus
The foremost military representative of King Erik in Norway during the 1430s was the Castellan at Akershus, Svarte Jøns. The name seems like a nickname for a pirate. Remarkably, that is not very far wrong. The first of that family who is known was a man from Skåne, the Danish Knight Nils Jønsson Svarte Skåning who was usually called Nils Svarte Skåning or only Svarte Skåning. He is mentioned from 1381 and died in 1410 or a little earlier.
Lord Nils Svarte Skåning came into the service of Queen Margrete and played an important role in the battles between her and the followers of King Albrekt of Sweden. In 1396 Lord Nils bought Kavlås in Västergötland and the family later became closely connected to that province; among other things, a son of Nils' son became lagmann there.
Lord Nils himself was violent. He operated exactly like a pirate. This was, in fact, not an unusual occupation for chieftains either before or after this period. The Norwegian Earl Alv Erlandsson regularly lived the life of a pirate at the end of the 1200s and King Erik ended his royal days in Scandinavia as a pirate on Gotland to name only the two best known.
The Son of Svarte Nils is "our man", the Knight Lord Svarte Jøns Nilsson Skåning, but usually only called Svarte Jøns. He was the Castellan at Akershus for Erik of Pomerania from about 1430 until the summer or autumn of 1438.
Svarte Jøns rejected all the accusations of having been passive or having actually helped the rebels in 1436. By the summer of 1438, his position as Castellan at Akershus must, however, have been weakened. We find him as Castellan there together with Olav Bukk both on the 1st of August and on the 9th of August in 1438. In the first of these two letters, the suspicion that he had helped the rebels is clearly revealed. City dweller Harald the Goldsmith had attacked Svarte Jøns with an accusation and thereby demanded that his actions at the time of the revolt be investigated. This was done. On 1 August 1438 Olav Bukk, Dean Anders Mus at the Maria Church, the Lagmann in Oslo, two men of the lower nobility, five members of the National Council and 12 jurors met and completely acquitted Lord Svarte Jøns. The claims of Harald the Goldsmith proved to be incorrect. In addition, the City's Seal had been used without permission on the letter which Harald had written.
In 1438 Svarte Jøns was replaced by Olav Bukk as the Castellan at Akershus and as the Feudal
Lord. The two of them were still working together in August of 1438. Svarte Jøns did not
immediately fall into disfavor but later that year Olav Bukk was alone in the position of
Castellan.
The Castellan at Akershus occupied the most powerful position in Norway at that time. He had the military, the judicial, and the executive power. He received the revenue from that huge Akershus Fief which included, among others, the Skien District. He was Castellan of the Castle and the Feudal Lord, the King's highest military and judicial representative in the whole of Østland. He was supposed to keep peace and order in the Fief and to strike down any revolt which might develop. Regarding the latter responsibility, doubt was raised about his efforts or desire to do this when Amund Bolt led the revolt in 1436.
Svarte Jøns was married to Ingeborg Nilsdaughter of the Swedish family of the high nobility, Natt och Dag. They had several sons who became prominent men in Sweden, among others, Ture and Åke, both knights and members of the National Council in Sweden, plus another son, Knight Sigge Jønsson. They all appear to have taken an equivocal position toward the rebels during the middle of the 1400s just as their father had done.
The family name or nickname "Svarte" (which means "black") usually came before their other names. We find, for example, a Svarte Åke Jønsson, the most well known of the sons of the Castellan at Akershus, always under this name in the Swedish records.
Much archival information exists about the Svarte family from the 1300s on, but there is particularly much from the century following, both in original form and in transcriptions. Most of it is of specifically Swedish interest but some documents exist which are of interest to Norwegian history. The most relevant of them are now printed in the Diplomatarium Norvegicum, volume 21.
These documents reveal nothing about the relations between Amund Bolt and Svarte Jøns. It is, at any rate, natural that they were well acquainted because the number of leading noblemen was small. It is, however, difficult to prove a relationship between them from this. In the source material, we have only the letter from Harald the Goldsmith in Oslo.
In spite of his own words, Svarte Jøns must have adopted a waiting attitude in 1436 and probably in 1438 also. This was probably a main reason for his having to yield his place as Castellan to the young and aggressive Olav Bukk.
The Letter From Harald the Goldsmith is dated 28 May 1438. Not one citizen or city dweller was mentioned by name in it. It turned out that the letter was written by Harald the Goldsmith together with four members of the City Council and one citizen. Harald later contended that they had written it for the good of Erlend Eindridsson. It was written without the Lagmann, the others in the City Council and the citizens and city dwellers being present or participating in the writing. When Svarte Jøns arrived with his complaints at the Court House in Oslo on the 1st of August 1438, Harald the Goldsmith took all responsibility for the letter and its contents.
Svarte Jøns demanded a copy and Harald produced one. He gave an oath that the letter he had written did not contain anything except that which the copy showed, specifically that Svarte Jøns had remained at the Bishop's Residence with Amund Sigurdsson. Svarte Jøns testified that he was not there. In fact, he and Sigurd Jonsson and their squires agreed that neither Amund nor any other of the King's enemies would ever again exert superior power. He testified that none of the allegations were true, that is, that Erlend Eindridsson had come to Oslo and offered to capture Amund Sigurdsson and that the common people had objected and Erlend had then said "God will not be pleased if I do not capture that traitor".
In court, Svarte Jøns said that he had never heard this offer from Erlend and that furthermore no one else among the citizens or common people could be found who heard it or who could lawfully say that they had heard it. Svarte Jøns then truthfully testified that there were no common people from the countryside in Oslo at that time and because of that he could have seized Amund Sigurdsson if he had been there.
The document of 1 August 1438 dramatizes the events at the Bishop's Residence. But what was the thought of Harald the Goldsmith and others in writing that letter? Perhaps they confused the details about two events. At any rate, Harald's letter and the uproar it caused must have been a strong contributing reason for Svarte Jøns' departure from Oslo in the autumn of 1438 and settling in Sweden. We do not know whether he was removed from office or left voluntarily. The strong position he later held in Sweden may indicate that he left voluntarily. The events must have made his position in Oslo so uncertain that he chose to leave. At any rate, Olav Bukk already shared the Castellany with Svarte Jøns on the first of August. This would not have particularly pleased Svarte Jøns.
Harald the Goldsmith said that he had written his letter on behalf of Erlend Eindridsson who was the most faithful supporter of Erik of Pomerania among the Norwegian chieftains. In the document of 1 August this was not denied so we can believe that Harald was correct in his contentions. In Norway, Erland was the mightiest of the opponents of Amund Sigurdsson Bolt and therefore of Hallvard Gråtopp.
Svarte Jøns was not interested in having a falling out with Lord Erland only in order to avoid being suspected of being in union with the leader of the 1436 revolt, Amund Sigurdsson Bolt. It is nevertheless reasonably clear that Erland was also the strongest opponent of Svarte Jøns. Olav Bukk must have been Lord Erland's man.
Hallvard Gråtopp's Band of Rebels, as earlier mentioned, must have reached Akershus in June or early in July and at that time Svarte Jøns was the only person who held the position of Castellan there. No document exists which tells of a battle at the Fortress. Hallvard had come from the west and approached Akershus from that direction. It was quite a distance from Akershus to the city of Oslo since at that time it was located below Eikaberg. Hallvard and his men never reached Oslo.
Two years earlier, Amund Bolt had come from the east and had first arrived in Oslo where he captured the Bishop's Residence. Negotiations took place there and an agreement was reached. Amund thus did not continue on to Akershus. It appears that Svarte Jøns never did battle at the Fortress. This may in fact be because he was such a successful negotiator that he managed to restrain the rebels from a serious attack and to avoid both a battle and the need to pursue them when they retreated. Olav Bukk, on the other hand, was a man of an entirely different sort.
3. Olav Bukk and the Manor at Brunla
At the end of the 1430's, Olav Markvardsson Bukk must have been a young and energetic man, he was perhaps only in his late 20's. The first time we hear about his father, Markvard Bukk, is in 1410. He was probably sent up to Norway by Erik of Pomerania late in the lifetime of Queen Margrete.
Markvard is a name which was common in Pomerania and since Erik himself was from Pomerania it is therefore probable that Markvard was a Pomerania. We do not, however, know anything about Markvard Bukk before we find him in Norway. There he was married to Sigrid Niklisdaughter Galle, daughter of the Norwegian nobleman Niklis or Nikolas Galle of Brunla. Markvard and Sigrid had two children about whom we know, Olav and Katarina. Markvard Bukk was the bailiff of the Numedal Skipreide and lived at Brunla.
The Numedal Skipreide did not consist of the area which is Numedal today but was at that time
the southern part of Vestfold and consisted of, among other areas, Brunlanes and Tjølling
together with the Lågen Valley to and including Sandsvær. Numedal, that is, the Lågen Valley
north of Sandsvær, on the other hand, belonged to the Skien District which also included most of
the present day Telemark County. In a letter from 1438 -- DN XII 172 -- it says, for example,
"Rollag in Numedal in the Skien District".
The Son, Olav Bukk, is mentioned in the sources the first time on 13 June 1438 -- DN III 534. On that day, a letter was composed in Marstrand where twelve jurors sentenced two bandits to death by decapitation. They were accused by Olav Bukk who conducted the case against them on behalf of the King.
The next time we hear about Olav is on the 1st of August of the same year -- DN XXI 282. He then shares the Castellany at Akershus with Svarte Jøns. Olav Bukk had certainly risen to power quickly. Those men who held a position of castellan were the mightiest men in Norway at that time and the Castellan at Akershus was the foremost among them. An important reason for Olav's transfer from Båhuslen was probably the attack which the men who were with Hallvard Gråtopp had made on Olav's home at Brunla together with the events which followed that attack. He may also have been transferred because he had shown a great deal of ability during his service in Båhuslen and finally because the King may not have had complete confidence in Svarte Jøns. Doubt was raised about his will to oppose Amund Sigurdsson Bolt during the revolt in 1436 and this was certainly known in Denmark where King Erik was.
Such doubt was not attached to Olav Bukk. Since the rebels had attacked his home, he would not have been thought to be disloyal to the King. Olav had also demonstrated in Båhuslen that he was a resolute man. Without doubt, he was a man upon whom the King and the members of the higher nobility in Norway could depend.
The Rebels probably did not leave Telemark before the spring work was done and the animals had been brought to the pastures, that is, before the first part of June of 1438 at the earliest. There were not many people in Norway in the 1430s. At that time, there were about 620 estates in use in all of Lower Telemark. In the three nearest parishes of Upper Telemark, that is, in Kviteseid, Seljord and Hjartdal, there were about 230 estates in use.
In all, this is about 850 estates. There were no husmannplassar at that time. Aside from a few inhabitants living in Skien and at some small seaside residences, otherwise everyone lived on estates. Mines, sawmills or other industries did not exist. It was therefore not a large band of combatants who left Lower Telemark and entered Vestfold. On the way to Oslo, however, several more men almost certainly joined the group.
The First Documents which mention the revolt are the 9th and 10th of August 1438 and at that time the revolt was over. In both letters Olav Bukk is mentioned as the Castellan at Akershus together with Svarte Jøns. Olav was at the Fortress that fall and winter. Regarding the relations between Brunla and the people from Telemark, it appears that his mother took care of matters at that time. On the 25th of February in 1439, she made an agreement with the common people of the Gjerpen Skipreide without her son being mentioned.
Hustru Sigrid undoubtedly attempted to get the common people in the other skipreida to cooperate with the agreement but did not succeed. She then turned to her son at Akershus who on the 3rd of March of 1439 asked the Bishop in Oslo, the Dane Jens Jakobsson, to write a letter to the priests in the Gjerpen Deanery, both in the Tithing Territory and in the Tax Land. It states, among other things, the following:
Finally the Bishop says,
The Three Skipreida of Bamble, Gjerpen and Ulefoss gave up after the letter from the Bishop was read in the churches but the Upper Skipreide where the fight had originated did not. It is in this situation that the Dean who was formerly the Priest in Sauherad writes to the people of the Lindheim Skipreide. After an introductory greeting, he says in the letter of 23 March 1439:
The Letter Which The Dean Wrote is a great work of art in its own way. He elucidates the strong revolutionary will of the people of the Lindheim Skipreide by forming long sentences containing point after point. He then adds that Olav Bukk and his mother and sister did not deserve such actions against them. The Dean certainly means what he says here. It was not against these three that they should have directed their anger. Olav was in the Vik (Båhuslen) and only the two women of his family were at home at Brunla. We also notice that the Dean does not talk about the rebels' advance against the Danish bailiffs Herlaug Pedersson on Mæla and Jens Jakobsson on Brunla. Sira Hjarrand continues the letter:
The Advance on Brunla -- The Dean points to the fact that even those who participated in the revolt had difficulty in defending that advance against those two women on Brunla and asserts that the action must have been taken by mistake. This was probably not easy to avoid when men were hunting down the Bailiff Jusse Jakobsson who finally took refuge in the Tanum church near Brunla. The men followed him into the church and that was a gross violation of the Holy. When Olav Bukk heard about this, he was extremely pained and wanted to avenge this action and to punish severely those who participated. According to what the Dean says, at first Olav wanted to proceed more vigorously than what finally resulted as his demand, the fine of a cow from every man.
We notice that Sira Hjarrand says "Telemark". He opens the letter by writing that it was to all "who dwell in Telemark, as far as the Oslo Diocese reaches" and we know that is equal to the Gjerpen Deanery. Since it only reached as far as and including the Lindheim Skipreide, "Telemark" later in the letter represents the same as in the introduction. That the letter concerns the Upper Skipreide in Telemark, that of Lindheim, we also see since the Dean continues thus:
Olav Bukk Threatens -- It is clear that Olav Bukk had threatened much worse action than that with which he is finally satisfied. But if the fine were not paid, he would ravage all of the Lindheim Skipreide. The Dean therefore begs the common people there to agree to the terms which had been established. He concludes his letter thus:
There is little doubt that Olav Bukk would have proceeded forcefully if the common people of the Lindheim Skipreide had not acknowledged his claims. According to the documents, he emerges as an uncompromising and vigorous man but, when he had obtained what he wanted, it appears that he could be less demanding.
The Last Letter from Olav Bukk is dated the 27th of April 1439. After that we do not hear anything more directly from him so Olav must have been dead shortly thereafter. The letter is mild in form and he is clearly satisfied that the people in the Lindheim Skipreide have agreed to his demands but he does not specifically touch upon the topic of his settlement with them. The letter is directed to all in the Skien District and has a long introduction:
After this came that part of the letter which is presented above with the heading of "The Events of the Summer of 1438". He thereafter points to the strong advance of Hallvard Gråtopp and his men and says,
Olav Bukk ascertains that the revolt of Hallvard Gråtopp had been of great injury:
We notice that Olav Bukk says that the strife "still exists". He also admits that there is much about which to complain and requests all to come forward with their complaints:
Olav Bukk says further that he together with the noblemen whom he expects in Oslo at the time of St. John's Day will help everyone obtain their rights. He concludes in this way:
In Memory of Olav Bukk, his mother and sister Hartvig Krummedike in 1461 established an altar in the Oslo cathedral -- DN II 627. He declared that the altar was for the salvation of the souls of those three people who were his brother-in-law, his mother-in-law and his wife and Lord Hartvig added "for the souls of our (that is, his own) parents".
Hartvig Krummedike was sent up to Norway in 1442 by Kristoffer of Bavaria who was the King of Norway beginning in that year. Sigurd Jonsson retired as Drottsete and no one replaced him but Hartvig became Castellan at Akershus. Sigurd Jonsson was there for only a three year period.
Down at Brunla those two women Sigrid Niklisdaughter and her daughter Katarina, remained.
Hartvig Krummedike must not have been in Norway for a very long time before he married Katarina and in 1445 became a member of the Norwegian National Council. He soon became the mightiest man in the nation. In 1453 Sigurd Jonsson is still called "National Director and Chief in charge of all of the Norwegian Kingdom" -- DN III 598. He died that year. On two occasions during 1453 he is called Chief and Vice Regent and that is the first time that the title "vice regent" is used.
It was men like these, Sigurd Jonsson of Sudreim and Olav Bukk of Brunla, whom Hallvard tested himself against. And it was Hartvig Krummedike who took over after them as the mightiest man in Norway.
The chief opponent of Hallvard Gråtopp, Olav Bukk, must have died sometime between 27 April 1439 and 14 April 1440. On the latter day, Fru Katarina Jonsdaughter Rømer, with the consent of her son Eilev Hjerne, exchanged various estates in the Berg and Tanum parishes with Sigrid Niklisdaughter and her daughter Jomfru Katarina. The document about this transaction was executed at Manvik in Brunlanes by, among others, juror Torleiv Solvesson -- DN VIII 335. Since her son Olav is not mentioned in the document, he must have already died before that day in 1440.
4. Bishop Jens of the Oslo Diocese
The revolt in 1436 was directed against the foreign tyrants or assailants, both ecclesiastical and temporal. The revolt extended over the whole Oslo Diocese and a main goal for the band of rebels was to capture the Bishop's Residence in Oslo. Bishop Jens was a central person in the exercise of foreign power and a main supporter of the foreign bailiffs together with the castellan at Akershus.
Bishop Jens Jakobsson was not only the Bishop. He was also Norway's Chancellor. Already in 1436 the insurgents had demanded that someone else other than the Bishop should have the position of Chancellor and that he should be a Norwegian. In 1420, Jens followed another Dane, Jakob Knutsson, as Bishop. Both had been Deans in Roskilde before they ascended the episcopal seat in Oslo. Jens Jakobsson had also been the Danish Chancellor for King Erik and continued as the Norwegian Chancellor after he arrived in Oslo. He was certainly the King's man.
Queen Margrete and King Erik used more and more people from the royal chapels in the national government. These were men trained at the royal chapels in Oslo and Bergen or in the corresponding ones in Roskilde in Denmark and in Linköping in Sweden. They were thus trained for service in the Church and in the government -- NK 281.
Aslak Bolt had also been in the service of King Erik before he became bishop and later archbishop. He was active and energetic and attempted in 1435 to re-establish the provincial councils. At that time, the Norwegian Church had not used its right to make laws through such councils since 1351. Attendance must have disappointed Aslak Bolt. The bishops did not themselves meet but some sent assistants and excuses and others did not even do that and among the latter was Bishop Jens in Oslo.
Accordingly Aslak issued a decree which strongly rebuked them. The following year he called another provincial council. Of the bishops in Norway, only Bishop Jens did not attend. This was the year that Amund Sigurdsson Bolt led a revolt and took the Bishop's Residence in Oslo. Archbishop Aslak Bolt came to the city only a few days after the rebels had given up holding the Bishop's Residence. In 1437 an agreement was reached between them and the Norwegian National Council. Bishop Jens Jakobsson as King Erik's man, both as Bishop and Chancellor, was thus in the middle of these dramatic events. He was central in this struggle and became just as central in the next struggle which was against Hallvard Gråtopp.
The Bishop's Letter About the Revolt of Hallvard Gråtopp is dated in Oslo on 3 March of 1439. Bishop Jens begins in this way:
The Bishop continues by pointing out that this concerned not only those who were with Hallvard but:
We learn that the Bishop had already written to the priests in the Gjerpen Deanery the year before but evidently no one had bothered about that letter because the Bishop continued as follows:
Undoubtedly the Bishop and Chancellor Jens Jakobsson considered the revolt to be very serious; he does, however, make it clear that he wrote this letter as well as the one last year under pressure from Olav Bukk. The Bishop now threatens the most severe punishment which the Church had, excommunication, which prohibits them from receiving Holy Communion and Church burial and from attendance at worship. The common people shall be forced to obedience. He continues in his letter:
The original letter from the Bishop was issued in Oslo on 3 March 1439 but the letter which was sent around to the priests was a transcription which was made in Skien three weeks later and it concludes like this:
The Letter From the Bishop Was Not Heeded -- That is what Bishop Jens Jakobsson says about the letter which he sent in 1438 and about which we know nothing more. Actually the second letter received no better treatment. Only two priests wrote on the back of it, namely, at Bamble and at Eidanger. They could safely do that because at the end of February of 1439 the common people in the Gjerpen Skipreide had already come to terms with Sigrid Galle at Brunla. In the other skipreida of Telemark they had not done so and in those places the priests did not write on the letter that it had been read in the churches.
As a matter of fact, it was not in the churches that it was read but from the church doors. On the back of the letter, this is written:
We lack the inscription of the third parish priest in the Gjerpen Skipreide, the priest at Gjerpen. This is obviously because he was identical with the man who was Dean of the whole Deanery and we shall soon meet him as the mediator between the common people and Olav Bukk. This must have been agreed upon while the Bishop was on a visit in Skien on about the 24th of March when that transcribed letter to the priests was written. The Dean had already on the day before, that is, on the 23rd of March, composed his letter "to all who live in Telemark as far as the Oslo Diocese extends".
This letter is more completely discussed in another chapter. It was Dean Hjarrand Toraldsson who with his letter finally managed to get an agreement with the common people of the Upper Skipreide in Telemark. They refused to obey their Danish Bishop. He, however, was not removed from office. The common people had to give in regarding him also. Jens Jakobsson remained as Bishop for many years after 1439.
5. Bailiff Herlaug Pedersson in the Skien District
The Dane, Herlaug Pedersson, became Bailiff in the Skien District in 1410 at the very latest. He followed Norwegian Royal Official and Knight Gaute Eiriksson as the mightiest man there. Thus a Danish Squire became Bailiff and took over from the Norwegian Knight and Royal Official. Lord Gaute was a member of the Norwegian National Council as far back as from 1369. In 1388 he was among the foremost when Margrete Valdemarsdaughter was chosen queen. At the coronation at Kalmar in 1397, he was knighted together with twelve other Norwegians. From about 1387 he was the Royal Official in the Skien District. We find him mentioned often in documents from Telemark where he presides in Skien and delivers judgments together with the lagmann and receives fees and fines from the bønder. Both Queen Margrete and Gaute died in 1412.
Herlaug Pedersson was occasionally and at first called Royal Official or the Assistant Royal Official as he was a couple of times in the 1420s. He had arrived in Norway early in the century. When Erik of Pomerania was on his only trip to Norway in 1405, he had with him a letter from Margrete which contained directions about how the young king should act and from whom he should seek advice. She said that when he first came to Norway he should pay a visit to Herlaug and have him with him during the trip because "Herlaug knows the bønder".
As Bailiff or Assistant Royal Official, Herlaug lived on Mæla near Skien. He was the Feudal Lord's man and not the King's, as the Royal Official had been. The Castellan at Akershus was actually also the Royal Official in the Skien District and in other districts which were appointed under the Feudal Lord or Castellan at Akershus. Herlaug was therefore Assistant Royal Official, a designation which went out of use after a while and the word bailiff was used instead. Gaute Eiriksson was the last Royal Official in the Skien District who lived in Skien.
Some examples show the situation well in the 1400s. In 1416 -- DN XIII 60 -- Herlaug Pedersson is mentioned as "fauute j Skidhæsyslo"' that is, "the Bailiff in the Skien District" in a letter written on Mæla. He then sold on behalf of the King 3 markebol at Midbø in Kviteseid. In 1410 on Mæla he received tegn og fredkjøp -- DN VI 409 -- in a trial of a homicide and it shows that he was then already the Bailiff and lived at Mæla. In January of 1424, Herlaug was present in Hjartdal in connection with a homicide. He met as the Assistant Official to the Royal Official who was also called County Official, Tymme Jonsson, a Dane who was Castellan at Akershus -- DN I 476. In 1432, Herlaug who was then called Bailiff in the Skien District, reported a homicide to King Erik -- DN I 532.
As long as the King and the Queen often lived at the Akershus Castle, the Royal Treasurer of the Oslo Diocese had no independent freedom of action over the Fortress and could not become an actual Feudal Lord. He first became this at the time the Union came into being after King Håkon was dead in 1380. At first they were called the Bailiff at Akershus and the first Bailiff there and Royal Official in the Oslo Diocese was Benedikt Nikolausson in the 1380s. He obtained that position as payment for money he had loaned King Håkon and the Fief became mortgaged. Benedikt was later the Royal Official at Eiker where he had much landed property and Agmund Berdorsson Bolt came to Akershus. He was removed from office by Erik of Pomerania in 1405.
Agmund Bolt evidently had not obtained the Fief through a mortgage as did his predecessor. As Lord of the Fortress with the archives and the treasury, he was the Feudal Lord and heir of the Royal Official but obtained more districts under his control, among them the Skien District. The new Feudal Lord after Agmund Bolt was the Norwegian National Councilman Eindrid Erlendsson. After a few years, the Danish nobleman Tymme Jonsson took over. He was a good friend of the Oslo Bishop Jens Jakobsson who was also a Dane. These two certainly benefited from Danish or other foreign bailiffs or colleagues. Svarte Jøns who was the Danish Swede who became Castellan at Akershus in 1430 did so also. Before him, the German Tydeke Rust was the Bailiff at Akershus for some years.
At the end of the 1300s, the administrative duties which the Royal Official had and the military duties which the Lord of the Fortress had were thus combined in one man, the Lord of the Castle who was also called the Official in Charge or Castellan at Akershus. He was the highest leader of that great administrative region, the Akershus Fief, so his title could also be Feudal Lord.
Among Both the Norwegian High Nobility who were locked out of the fiefs and bishops' seats and among the members of the lower nobility who lost many of their chances of being bailiffs and holding other positions, the dissatisfaction became great. The bønder also grumbled about the plague of the bailiffs who were foreigners. The common people and the upperclass therefore met in a common desire to remove those foreign bailiffs and other foreigners who were powerful people; they were called foreign power brokers, that is, men with dominion or power. At the same time, the weakest opposition was from among the few of the higher nobility.
The first insurrection against the foreigners took place in the 1420s. The bønder in the Borgar District arose against the German Herman Molteke who was married to the Norwegian Borghild, the daughter of Agmund Bolt who was earlier Lord of the Castle at Akershus. She was therefore closely related to the rebel leader of 1436 Agmund Sigurdsson Bolt. We shall explore this fact more extensively later. Now we shall return to the Bailiff in the Skien District.
Herlaug Pedersson certainly was familiar with the bønder but he was equally familiar with the opportunity to use his position. The control which King Erik practiced was not like that in Queen Margrete's time. Herlaug took charge of many estates while he was Bailiff -- DN I 582, 586, 609, 620 and DN V 416, etc.
After the revolt of 1436, the National Council had to promise to send all those foreign bailiffs
home but two were allowed to stay as long as the truce lasted. Those two were the Danes Jusse
Tomasson in Lier and specifically Herlaug Pedersson -- DN III 525. He must have, for some
reason, had a special position in the Skien District because people there also supported the revolt
of Amund Bolt. Perhaps it was the influence of that great old family on Mæla which got the
bønder in the Skien district to wait about getting rid of Herlaug Pedersson. He lived on Mæla
and had married into the family there as later his brother Jon did also. He became Bailiff after
Herlaug. A third brother, Håkon Pedersson, is mentioned in 1449 as "the Bailiff in Brunla" --
DN II 591.
The Meeting of the National Council in Oslo in February of 1437 decreed that only Norwegian men could obtain offices. The King, however, did nothing more about this than to replace a few men in the positions of castellan and otherwise let everything remain as before. In the course of the fall of 1437 and the following winter and spring, the people in the Skien District must have united in the demand to remove their Bailiff and to insist that the agreement from February of 1437 be kept.
The residence of Herlaug on Mæla near Skien was the first place we know of that Hallvard Gråtopp's band attacked when they, in the early summer of 1438, raised the banner of revolt. In 1444, Herlaug composed a letter at Mæla where he acknowledged receiving four merk gold from Orm Sigurdsson of Øverland in Kviteseid "for robbery and rioting" together with Hallvard Gråtopp on Mæla.
This does not sound exactly like the Bailiff was well liked by the bønder of the Skien District such as it has been conjectured was the reason that he was able to remain in office after the truce of 1436. He resided on Mæla as long as he lived. In the fall of 1447, together with Jurors Tjostolv Gunnarsson, Hallvard Ketilsson and Aslak Grimkelsson, he confirmed a letter from Bishop Gotskalk -- DN I 585. The daughter of Aslak Grimkelsson, Margrete, was married to Alv Niklisson Kane from Mæla -- see below.
Herlaug Pedersson was present in Oslo on the first of August 1438 and we find him that day among those who wrote a letter about Svarte Jøns, the Castellan at Akershus, and his connection with Amund Sigurdsson Bolt. Herlaug had probably fled from the revolt and had not yet returned to Skien.
January of 1458 was the last time Bailiff Herlaug Pedersson is mentioned as alive. He was among those Norwegian National Council members who were in Skara in Sweden when the oldest son of Kristoffer of Bavaria was chosen as King -- DN III 614. In June of the following year -- DN I 619 -- Jens Pedersson, the Bailiff in the Skien district, confirmed the sale of an estate which his dead brother, Herlaug Pedersson, had made. Herlaug must have been very old, perhaps over eighty years old, when he died sometime between January of 1458 and June of 1459.
The revolt of Hallvard Gråtopp was thus only a small incident. Those foreign bailiffs whom he wanted to get removed remained. Neither Hallvard nor the other Norwegians had the smallest chance of removing them. Those three brothers who were Bailiffs, Herlaug, Jon and Håkon, are an indication of the firm position which the Bailiffs had in the nation starting from the 1400s.
While Foreign Rulers were rarely seen in the beginning of Queen Margrete's time, they rushed in immediately after her sister's grandson, Erik of Pomerania, obtained more influence in the rule of the nation. Even the Bishop in that most important Oslo diocese was a Dane. He was also the chancellor of the Kingdom. Already in the 1420s the foreign Bailiffs almost predominated and many of them married into old Norwegian noble families, both those of the high nobility and of the low nobility.
At Mæla there were two estates Southern and Northern Mæla and from ancient times both belonged to two prominent families. This was not entirely unusual. At Bjørntveit in Solum there were two estates and on Skalberg in Tjølling there were three and noble families lived on all of them. It was thus on Mæla also but in 1409 -- DN IV 564 -- Tormod Valdtjovsson Kane and Herborg Bergulvsdaughter relinquished the Southern Mæla estate to Knight Gaute Eiriksson. He was to have the estate as long as he lived but then Tormod and Herborg or their inheritors should get the estate back.
On his mother's side, Tormod Valdtjovsson was a member of the old family on Mæla which was of the higher nobility. He and Herborg had a son Nikulas or Niklis who moved to Søve in Holla and lived there. He was married to Ingeborg Olavsdaughter and they had two children, Ulv who took over Søve and Herborg who was married to the Bailiff Jon or Jens Pedersson, a brother of Herlaug Pedersson. Jon settled on Southern Mæla. In that way this estate came to the descendants of Tormod and Herborg. It was her family estate.
About whether and with whom Herlaug Pedersson was married we gain more insight toward the end of the century, in 1474 and 1490. In a letter which was composed at Southern Mæla in 1474 -- DN III 658 -- we see that Bailiff Jens Pedersson and Herborg Niklisdaughter had made an agreement with Margrete Aslaksdaughter at Søve about the inheritance from Ulv Niklisson and his parents at Søve.
Of particular interest here is Kristin Herlaugsdaughter who, to judge from a letter from 1474, must have been the daughter of Herlaug Pederson. We do not discover more until a letter written in Skien in March of 1490 -- DN V 683. Ragnhild Jensdaughter, the daughter of Bailiff Jens or Jon Pedersson, met at that time before Lagmann Amund Sigurdsson and six jurors in Skien. She presented the court with a case about some landed property in Hallingdal. It had been demanded from her brother, Arne Jensson, by people who had purchased it from their father, "Jens Person". Fru Kristin Toraldsson inherited it from her mother, Fru Adalis or Adelus, when she, that is Fru Kristin, was married to Herlaug Pedersson.
It is not known if Herlaug Pedersson was married several times but he probably was. We do not know, however, if Kristin Herlaugsdaughter was the daughter of Herlaug and Fru Kristin Toraldsdaughter or if she was from a possible later marriage. We know more about Fru Adalis, mother of Fru Kristin. She was married to Torald Sigurdsson who was a member of the Norwegian National Council as early as 1387, was knighted in 1397 but is mentioned as dead in 1403.
Torald Sigurdsson was probably the son of a sibling of Gaute Eiriksson, the Royal Official in the Skien District. Torald had a sister whose name was Ingeborg Sigurdsdaughter who was first married to Lord Lodin Eivindsson and then to Lord Nikolas Sveinsson Galle, that is Old Galle, at Brunla.
Herlaug Pedersson had thus married into the best family of the Norwegian high nobility when he married the daughter of that rich Fru Adalis Erlingsdaughter. Herlaug was one of the most prominent opponents of Hallvard Gråtopp and had strong supporters. Hallvard had not only those foreign Bailiffs against him but also all of the Norwegian high nobility. They must have seen him as a threat to their own power and property.
Those Three Brothers who were Bailiffs and Whose Name was Pedersson had nothing with them from Denmark when they came to Norway except prospects for power and success. Since the daughters of the Norwegian nobility so often married foreigners in positions of power, it was obviously a decision which was made by the family. Young girls could not at that time marry without the approval of the family. It obviously must have been a policy to do this. The daughters had property to offer together with social and family positions in this nation to which the foreigners came and in return they had powerful positions to offer those old families.
Herlaug Pedersson was evidently sent up to Norway by Queen Margrete but his brothers probably went to their brother so that he could help them. The Royal Official Gaute Eiriksson secured Southern Mæla for himself in 1409, probably as a dwelling for the Bailiff. At any rate, Herlaug lived there later and his brother Jon after him.
6. Jusse Jakobsson and Some Others
Parish Priest Jacob Wille (who was dead in 1808) copied an old document which was dated in Skien in the year of 1443. The original document is no longer extant, only the transcription is. This is, in modern speech, what it says,
Jusse Jakobsson was, according to this letter, dead in 1443 but not from injury he might have received at Brunla, otherwise it would have been mentioned in the letter. Neither is there any mention of the size of the fine; Hallvard Ketilsson must have given such a fine to Jusse Jakobsson's heirs. Jusse was married to Hustru Ingeborg Gunnulvsdaughter who was from Northern Bjørntveit in Solum. She was the daughter of Gunnulv Audason and Liv Hallvardsdaughter. Gunnulv is mentioned between 1387 and 1410. Liv may have been a sister to Gudrun and Margreta Hallvardsdaughters who at Southern Bjørntveit each received a half part of Klevar in Sauherad from that old Royal Official Bjørn Torleivsson. We shall return to this matter.
The Dane Jusse Jakobsson was a Bailiff and is mentioned as early as 1418 -- DN IV 584. He was thus at Brunla with his family in 1438 and had fled from the rebels and into the church, but was followed there. It must have been this event which was seriously condemned by the Bishop, the Dean and later by Olav Bukk.
The Transcription of the Letter from 1443 is of low quality and uncertain. The date is misunderstood and faulty. Wille has written as the date "feria 3tia" but this has no meaning. Probably the year is also wrong because it appears that Jusse Jakobsson was alive in 1445. In a letter dated at Oslo on 25 November 1445 -- DN II 575 -- Squire Jusse Jakobsson is mentioned following Knight Olav Håkonsson and Lagmann Herlaug Mattisson and before four members of the City Council.
Jusse Jakobsson was one of the many foreigners who occupied leading positions. It was not unexpected that the foreigners like Svarte Jøns and Bishop Jens Jakobsson employed compatriots as servants and assistant bailiffs. One of them was Herlaug Pedersson and another was Jusse Jakobsson.
Foreign bailiffs are found almost everywhere and also here. Bishop Jens Jakobsson had his bailiffs and administrative assistants most of whom were Danish. Among them can be mentioned Peder Nilsson who around 1430 was the representative of the Bishop at the Tønsberg Fortress and Pil Laurensson who in 1434 was estate manager at Teie.
It was common for foreigners to have won for themselves wealth and good marriages. The fact that Bishop Jens employed Danes as priests and for other clerical positions, among others, as canons, was also looked upon angrily.
Several of the Foremost Norwegians also opposed the rebels in the years of 1436 through 1438. The leading one of these was Eindred Erlendsson of Losna. As a National Council Member and Knight, he was at the great meeting at Kalmar in 1397. He lived until around 1440. It was probably Queen Margrete who helped this man who was a member of the high nobility to succeed. He was also in the following of King Erik when he made his only trip to Norway in 1405.
Eindrid became Castellan at Akershus when Agmund Bolt was removed that year. Later Eindrid was Castellan at the Tønsberg Fortress. The relationship between him and King Erik seems to have been good the whole time and Eindrid was the King's foremost and most faithful man among the Norwegians. He was mentioned in a letter on the 1st of August of 1438 in connection with the revolt of Amund Sigurdsson Bolt whom he wanted to strike down with a hard hand.
Eindrid's son, Erlend Eindridsson, Knight and National Council Member like his father, was also a faithful supporter of King Erik. In 1439, Erlend Eindridsson was one of those three Norwegians who the National Council mentioned as a possible Drottsete. But Sigurd Jonsson of Sudreim was chosen. For that matter, Erlend was married to Gudrun Alvsdaughter Bolt who was a daughter of the sister of Sigurd. She and Erlend had two daughters. One of them whose name was Sigrid was married to Danish Nobleman Holger Rosenkrantz who inherited the huge property of the Losna Family.
Sigurd Jonsson of Sudreim was also entirely the King's man. After the revolt of Hallvard Gråtopp, Sigurd Jonsson in 1439 became the Drottsete and, in addition, Castellan at Akershus. As Castellan, he was in 1445 replaced by Hartvik Krummedike from Holstein who had married the sister of Olav Bukk, Katarina Markvardsdaughter Bukk.
Many of the city dwellers in Oslo also opposed Hallvard Gråtopp as they had opposed Amund Sigurdsson Bolt two years earlier. They found themselves best served with the stable conditions under the rule which then existed. For them, the most important factor was that the government succeeded in restraining rebellions so that they did not suffer damage to goods and property.
Hallvard Gråtopp had his support out in the countryside among the bønder and the people of the low nobility. One can say, with a more modern expression, that regional rural Norway opposed the city dwellers and the upper class. Even though the city dwellers and the people of the high nobility were considerably fewer, it was they who had the economic power and weight, but not so much that they need not support themselves with the foreign perpetrators of violence, men with power, and they were primarily the King and his men.
Given these as opponents, Hallvard Gråtopp had few chances of success. He must have known this. What then was the basis for the fact that he nevertheless made the attempt? The answer probably lies in the revolt which occurred two years earlier. The revolt of 1436 succeeded in many of its demands -- on paper. Complete frustration may also have been one of the several reasons for Gråtopp's revolt. We shall look more closely at the background for the uprisings on the 1430s.