Sigurd Havtoresson promises the farmers of Romerike a settlement
DN 13/32 · 25 July 1371 · Sudreim
What the letter says
At Sudreim on 25 July 1371 the knight Sigurd Havtoresson and Hallvard, bailiff at Akershus, promise all the farmers of Romerike that they shall be reconciled and free of prosecution in the cases they could be charged with under the law, provided they pay what has been agreed. The promise rests on a letter from King Håkon VI, and a copy of the royal letter is attached to this letter. Several words in the letter are illegible.
The letter in modern English (excerpt)
Be it known to all good men that I, Sigurd Havtoresson, knight, and Hallvard [illegible]sson, bailiff at Akershus, acknowledge with this our letter that we two have promised all the farmers of Romerike, those who [illegible] and [illegible] will pay out [uncertain reading], that they shall be reconciled and wholly quit of all the cases for which [illegible] could charge them under the law. This applies as our lord the king's letter on the matter reads, and as this copy (transcript) attached to this our letter shows. In truth we two set our seals to this letter, which was made at Sudreim on St James's Eve (at the Mass of James, 25 July) in the sixteenth year of the reign of our worthy lord Håkon, by the grace of God king of the realms of Norway and Sweden (1371).
Original text (excerpt)
Þæt s[e ollom g]odom monnom kunnigt at ek Siugurdær Hafþorsson riddara ok Halvarder . . . . son fouite a Akærs huse kiænnumst þess med þesso okro brefue att mit hafuum lofuat ollom bondonom aa Raumærike þæim sæm þenna . . . . . . . . ok . . . . . læ v[ili]æ vt [lu]kæ at þeir skulu væra satter ok ollungis kuitter vm oll þau mall æftyr sæm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . till þeira att tala med laghom æftyr þui sæm þetta okkars herra konongsens bref þer vm ludær ok sem þenna transkriptum vattær sæm
Background
Sigurd Havtoresson of Sudreim was married to Ingeborg Erlingsdatter, who owned Giske, and Sudreim in Romerike was the family's chief farm. The letter shows that in 1371 he had a central role in governing Romerike together with the king's bailiff at Akershus. What offences the farmers had committed the letter does not say, but it suggests that there had been unrest or breaches of the law among many of them, and that the king chose to grant a collective pardon in return for a fine. In these years King Håkon VI was in conflict with Albrecht of Mecklenburg over Sweden, and the king needed both money and peace in the land, but whether this was connected with the case we do not know. A bailiff (fogd) was the king's official who collected taxes and fines and kept order in a district.
People: Sigurd Havtoresson