Birkebeiner - Formation

Formation

The Birkebein party was formed of some earlier groups with the original goal to depose king Magnus V of Norway (Magnus Erlingsson) and his father Earl Erling Skakke. From a socio-historical perspective, scholars have interpreted the party as the result of the rapid increase in landless markamenn (meaning "border men"), who settled along the Swedish border and made their living by pillaging the rich old settlements. It was this lawless population that became the foremost basis of the birkebeiner, even though it is questionable whether their leaders were paupers wearing shoes made of birch bark.

Their leadership came from Trøndelag, a region where the social tensions were not as marked, and their motive was rather to stop the transition of power from Trøndelag to Viken and Vestlandet. The powerful Trønder families were simply being left behind by their peers in the south, who had acquired a strong leader in the Vestland earl Erling Skakke in the mid-12th century. In the early 1160s, Erling had taken control of Viken and the bishopric of Nidaros and had subsequently made his underage son Magnus Erlingsson the king of Norway. The party that was behind their rule was not called the Bagli party (Bagler) during their time, but only later. The rival forces against Birkebeins were dubbed by several names, successively Lendsmenn, Heklungs, Kuvlungs, Øyskjeggs and Bagler.