User:Thhist/Battle of Florvåg

The Battle of Florvåg (Norwegian: Slaget ved Florvåg) was a naval battle that was fought on 3 April 1194 between King Sverre Sigurdsson, leader of the Birkebeiner party, and Sigurd Magnusson, royal pretender of the Øyskjegg party. Sigurd being a minor, the real leaders in the revolt against Sverre were Hallkjell Jonsson and Olav Jarlsmåg.

The Øyskjeggs recruited their initial army in Orkney and Shetland, and returned to Norway in 1193, taking control over a large part of the country. Based in Bergen, the Øyskjeggs were attacked by the Birkebeiner fleet in the nearby bay Florvåg, off Askøy, in April 1194. The Øyskjeggs had the upper hand during most of the battle, but when victory seemed secure, their ships were caught in a current. This caused them to become easy prey for the Birkebeiner, who won the battle decisively.

Background
The main source for the battle, and the events leading up to it, is King Sverre's Sverris saga. The revolt was based around Sigurd Magnusson, the only widely recognised son of former king Magnus Erlingsson, who had been killed by the Birkebeiner in the Battle of Fimreite in 1184, when Sverre usurped the throne. As Sigurd was a minor, his supporters were led by Sigurd's guardian, lendmann Hallkjell Jonsson, as well as Olav Jarlsmåg and Sigurd Jarlsson. Sigurd Magnusson was sent westwards to Shetland and Orkney in 1192, and gained the military support of Earl Harald Maddadsson. Sigurd was proclaimed king in Orkney, and was permitted to recruit an army in Harald's realm.

The army sailed to Viken, Norway in 1193 with 23 ships and 2,000 men, and Sigurd was proclaimed king at the Haugating. This force was commonly called the Øyskjeggs or Øykars, although they themselves preferred to be called the Gullbeiner ("gold-legs"), as opposed to their opponents, the Birkebeiner ("birch-legs"). The Øyskjeggs sailed briefly south to raid Denmark for booty, and after returnig to Norway, they took control over the the entire country south of Stad, Selje —thus most of Western, Southern and Eastern Norway. Sigurd and the Øyskjeggs took up their base in Bergen for the winter, although they failed to take the city castle Sverresborg, which was defended by 300 Birkebeiners. Not expecting a Birkebeiner attack until spring, the Øyskjegg army was distributed across the country. The navy was also scattered, with six ships stationed in Stavanger and three in Sogn.

The battle
After hearing of the Øyskjegg offence, Sverre gathered his troops and sailed south from his base in Nidaros (Trondheim) with 20 ships. As Sverre was closing in on Bergen on 2 April, the Øyskjeggs took their ships and sailed across Byfjorden to Florvåg, off the southeastern side of the island Askøy. Sverre arrived in the evening, leaving his fleet in Gravdal. After gaining intelligence of Øyskjegg plans of an attack, Sverre set out to instead surprise the Øyskjeggs with an attack before dawn.

The Birkebeiner approached Florvåg in early 3 April, Palm Sunday, while it was still dark. The Øyskjeggs did not know of the attack until hearing the noise from the Birkebeiner ships crushing into their own ships. As the Birkebeiner warriors guarded themselves with shields, the Øyskjeggs found no targets to shoot at until the Birkebeiner finally charged at the Øyskjeggs. The Øyskjeggs had an advantage since their ships were taller than those of the Birkebeiner, and they managed to pull Sverre's own royal ship towards them, killing all the archers and capturing the royal banner Sigerflua.

After heavy losses on both sides, the Birkebeiner managed to shake off the Øyskjeggs and started a retreat. The Øyskjegg fleet began chasing the Birkebeiners, but as their oars had been broken, the Øyskjegg ships were dragged into a strong current, and the Birkebeiner fleet returned to attack the ships of the Øyskjeggs. The Birkebeiner also gained reinforcements of a fresh ship with 100 men from Sverresborg, and easily defeated the Øyskjeggs, one ship at a time. Only two Øyskjegg ships managed to get away, and except for some men who asked for pardon, the majority of the Øyskjegg forces were killed, including Sigurd, Hallkjell and Olav.

Numbers
According to the saga, the Birkebeiner fleet consisted of 20 ships, plus a ship from Sverresborg that joined later on during the final stages of the battle. The Øyskjeggs had a numerically smaller fleet of 14 ships during the battle, but was compensated by their ships being bigger. Historian Halvdan Koht estimated both fleets to carry forces of approximately a total 2,000 men. Koht estimated the Øyskjegg casualties at 1,000 men, but Anders Bjarne Fossen raised the numbers to 1,500. While harder to pinpoint, Fossen estimated the numbers of Birkebeiners killed in the battle at around 900–1,000 men.