Birger I, the Monk, Eirikrsson af Munsö
Lived: 903-957
King of Egypt, Africa and Nubia: 946-957
Head of House af Munsö: 946-957
Saint Eirikr II’s son, Birger, is far more deseriving of the title ‘the Pious’ that he became known as. Whilst Eirikr’s personal religious piety was at times slightly suspect – he refused to surrender his concubines even after his conversion to Christianity, and lived a luxurious life when in the capital – Birger’s was unquestionable. This was a man who developed a powerful personal connection with the Christian faith and the Egyptian tradition of monasticism – continuing the process of the Christianisation of Egyptian state and society, as well as centralising political power in the country around the Church and Monarchy.
All Christian monasticism, and indeed some Muslim currents such as Sufism, can trace their heritage back to the Christian ‘Desert Fathers’ of Egypt. These were the early Christians who, following the end of open persecution in the Roman Empire in the 4th century, went into the desert to embrace a form of living martyrdom involving harsh ascetism, and intense spirituality. The Coptic monasteries fascinated Birger from a relatively early age – growing up during a time of religious upheaval in Egypt as his father attempted to transform the country into a Christian nation and made an enemy in the Abbasid Caliphate, Birger was attracted to separation of the monasteries from the secular world, their rejection of luxury and easy living (something which appealed to many Norse, uncomfortable with the drift away from hyper-masculinity in Egypt) and the spirituality of the monks.
Birger’s affinity to Christian spiritualism and his refusal to become directly involved in warfare rankled with the Norse nobility. Indeed, there were strong rumours (recording in the ‘Secret History of the Egyptian Nation’ – a text written by an unknown traditionalist at court) that Birger was a practising and submissive homosexual – an accusation so serious in Norse culture that the accused actually had the right to challenge the accuser to a duel in order to protect his honour. Whether it was Birger’s spiritual belief in ascetic values, or a preference for the other sex that left him distanced from his wife and the company of woman as a whole (although he did sire one son, Birger spent most of his marriage far from his wife) cannot be fully known one way or the other. What is clear is that opinion of the King was split between the Traditionalist Norse who saw him as weak and effeminate – more concerned with the Coptic Church than his own people, and the Egyptians who regarded him as a good and pious King.
The one major military threat to Egypt faced during Birger’s reign was the invasion of Tunis by Benoit Bosonid and an army of 25,000 Provencals. Benoit was the disinherited second son of the wealthy Duke of Provence, with the back of his father Benoit mustered a large army of adventurers, the land hungry and mercenaries and invaded Egypt’s Western Provinces in early 951. The Egypto-Norse were forced to withdraw in the face of overwhelming force and began to regroup an army to eject the Latins. During that time Benoit stormed the defences of Tunis – capturing Egypt’s second city. In 952 Birger’s Marshals were able to muster an army large enough to face Benoit – crushing his army near the ancient site of Carthage, just a few miles from the fallen city of Tunis. Following the Battle of Carthage the Latins withdrew into Tunis itself, before surrendering in exchange for safe passage before the end of the year. It was a potential disaster only narrowly avoided.
Although, clearly, strongly influenced by the ‘regular Church’ that remained separate from the secular world, Birger was also a strong believer in the ‘secular Church’ and proponent of the Papacy in Alexandria. He therefore sought to bring greater unity between Church and state – increasing the power of both. In 948 the capital was moved from Aswan (where it had resided since 880), to Alexandria – the country’s ecclesiastical centre and seat of the Papacy. Moreover, the move to Alexandria allowed for more efficient communication throughout the Kingdom – with a port capital the important African provinces were now more in reach, whilst the Nile would allow for a continuation of the strong links within Egypt itself.
Birger also continued to process of limiting the power of the nobility – their defeat to his father in the 920s had truly broken their power as the Egyptian crown grew further in strength through the 940s and 50s. The culmination of Birger’s reforms came in 956 when he changed the succession law from a succession based upon seniority to primogeniture – ensuring that his one son and heir would follow him as King.
The change in the succession law could not have come sooner for Birger’s son as the Monk King passed away, at the age of 53 less than a year later. The King’s son, Eirikr III, was notable for being the first Egypto-Norse King with a noticeably dark complexion. Although his mother’s Berber ethnicity explains the darker pigment, his skin tone only strengthened claims amongst Traditionalists of Birger’s unorthodox sexual preference (and more importantly his lack of masculinity) and the new King’s illegitimacy. The Traditionalist faction would henceforth see the line of af Munsö as wholly corrupted, instead supporting an alteration of the Kingdom’s succession laws to one based upon election by the nobility as a means of unseating the ruling dynasty.