Peter Nicolai Arbo

By Peter Nicolai Arbo - http://www.arild-hauge.com/paintings.htm, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons King Sverre Sigurdsson is the Norwegian king who the Pope banned. Sverre was King of Norway from 1177 to 1202, and shortly after Sverre took over the throne, conflicts with the church began. The Norwegian Archbishop had been allied with Sverre’s opponent to the throne, Erling Skakke, and Sverre made sure to revoke many of the church’s rights.

By Peter Nicolai Arbo - Peter Nicolai Arbo, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons King Olav II of Norway was born in 993 at a royal farm in Ringerike, west of the present capital of Oslo. Even though neither of his parents were a king or queen, Olav was the great-great-grandchild of King Harald I, Norway’s first king. Being a decedent of King Harald was politically convenient as it gave Olav the right to claim political power and to be considered when the Norwegians wanted to elect a new monarch.