Kjartan I’s reign was compared to his predecessor a mediocre one. He did have his successes, but they were small and costly for the realm, and while having a promising start, he died before he could do any big deeds.
Family
Kjartan was married to Hafrid, a daughter of a local noble. He had only one trueborn son, who would later inherit the throne. His children was as follows:
Gyla
Ingrid
Cecilia
Ivar
He also had one astard son:
Bersi
His reign
Kjartan did not make it easy for himself when he took over the throne. His first act was to increase the crown authority, centralizing the power further in his hands. This led to some resentment, but no immediate turmoil.
A year into his reign, the mighty pagan kingdom of Jylland declared war to claim the last Norwegian holding in Skåne. Determined to turn the last two generations’ tide of losses in the south, he gathered his host and hired a mercenary company. The two armies met in Skåne, and the Norwegian army won a devastating victory. Kjartan quickly accepted the Jyllander king’s terms for a white peace, only to send a declaration of war back to the fear stricken enemy king, demanding the whole of Skåne back under the terms of holy war.
In the meantime, the king of Sweden, as Svithjod now styled itself, begged for help against the Suomi heathens. While the official policy for the last couple generations had been to heed these calls from the brother kingdom, and keep a defensive line, Suomi was now huge and Kjartan had a war to fight in the south, and he feared this endeavour could be compromised if a stray Suomi army came his way. He therefore turned down his kinsman’s desperate plight.
In the middle of the Jyllander war, the heathen Sumonesko rebelled in Finnmark. Months later the war for Skåne was won, but the cost had been great monetarily, and while the mercenaries had been let go, the crown was in debt, making the morale among Kjartan’s troops poor. He therefore had to let the Suomonesko revolt fester for a few months. During this time the Suomonsko rebels took control of all of Norway down to Trondheim, but by then the crown’s finances were in better shape and the poorly organized rebels were soundly crushed and sent fleeing back to Finnmark, where they were slaughtered to the last man, making an example for future rebels.
In early 982, the jarl of Jamtaland was discovered to plot for a claim on the Norwegian throne. Deeply disturbed by this, Kjartan had little time to ponder on the matter, as months later Folki of Hordaland, the pretender Haraldr’s son, declared war for the Norwegian throne himself. Only two months later, Jylland declared war for the province of Burgundaholmr in Skåne. Only two months after this, while Kjartan’s forces were battling the pretender forces, a peasant revolt happened in Trøndelag. Not daring to fight a three way war, Kjartan let his kinsman escape with only a white peace, so he could focus on the peasant rebels.
Unable to meet the Jyllander army directly, Kjartan hoped his allies in Britain and continental Europe would heed his call to arms. Thankfully they did, but it would take some time before their forces would arrive. Kjartan therefore went to Trøndelag with his army, meeting the peasant rabble. In close combat with the rebel leader, a lucky axe maimed him and cost him an arm. The wound festered and a month later he died in agony. The realm was now in the hands of his only trueborn son, a three year old boy.
Norgesveldet at the ascension of Ivar I.
Aftermath
Kjartan I did well enough in his short reign, but died before he could make any big mark on the history of Norway. He is such not very well remembered by the modern Norwegian populace. If he is known to a Norwegian today, it is rather as the father of the unfortunate Ivar I.
