Haakon IV of Norway - Background and Childhood

Background and Childhood

Haakon was born in Folkenborg (now in Eidsberg) to Inga of Varteig in the summer of 1204, probably in March or April. The father was widely regarded to have been King Haakon Sverresson, the leader of the birkebeiner faction in the ongoing civil war against the bagler, as Inga had been with Haakon in his hostel in Borg (now Sarpsborg) in late 1203. Haakon Sverresson was dead by the time his son Haakon was born, but Inga's claim was supported by several of Haakon Sverresson's followers. Haakon was born in bagler-controlled territory, and his mother's claim placed them in a dangerous position. While the bagler started hunting Haakon, a group of birkebeiner warriors fled with the child in the winter of 1205/06, heading for King Inge Bårdson, the new birkebeiner king in Nidaros (now Trondheim). As the party was struck by a blizzard, two of the best birkebeiner skiiers, Torstein Skevla and Skjervald Skrukka, carried on with the child over the mountain from Lillehammer to Østerdalen. They eventually managed to bring Haakon to safety to King Inge, and the particular event is commemorated in modern-day Norway by the popular annual skiing event Birkebeinerrennet. Haakon's dramatic childhood was often parallelled with that of former king Olaf Tryggvasson (who introduced Christianity to Norway), as well as with the gospels and Child Jesus, which served as an important ideological function for his kingship.

In the saga, Haakon is described as bright and witty, and as being small for his age. When he was three years old, Haakon was captured by the bagler but refused to call the bagler king Philip Simonsson his lord (he nonetheless came from the capture unharmed). When he learned at the age of eight that King Inge and his brother Earl Haakon the Crazy had made an agreement of the succession to the throne that excluded himself, he pointed that the agreement was invalid due to his attorney not having been present. He subsequently identified his attorney as "God and Saint Olaf." Haakon was notably the first Norwegian king to receive formal education at a school. From the late civil war era, the government administration relied increasingly on written communication, which in turn demanded literate leaders. When Haakon was in Bergen under the care of Haakon the Crazy, he started receiving education from the age of seven, likely at the Bergen Cathedral School. He continued his education under King Inge at the Trondheim Cathedral School after the Earl's death in 1214. Haakon was brought up alongside Inge's son Guttorm, and they were treated as the same. When he was eleven, some of Haakon's friends provoked the king by asking him to give Haakon a region to govern. When Haakon was approached by the men and was urged to take up arms against Inge, he rejected it in part because of his young age and its bad prospects, as well as because he believed it would be morally wrong to fight Inge and thus split the birkebeiner. He instead said that he prayed that God would give him his share of his father's inheritance when the time was right.