Witnesses at a sickbed about Bjørke in Løten
DN 3/134 · 20 May 1323 · Oslo
The case does not concern the family's own estate. The letter is included because Erling Vidkunsson, newly chosen as drottsete, orders evidence to be taken in an inheritance case about land in Løten.
What the letter says
On the orders of the drottsete Erling Vidkunsson, Andres Sigurdsson and Lawman Pål Einarsson took evidence in Oslo on 20 May 1323 from Steingard bonde, who lay ill in Hjelpargarden. The case concerned land in Bjørke in Løten in Hedmarken, which Torstein Torleiksson claimed on behalf of his wife Ragnhild Halvardsdatter. Witnesses from the Faroes confirmed that her father had betrothed her mother as his lawful wife, and other witnesses repeated a threat from Ragnhild's paternal uncle about the inheritance. The parties agreed to meet again at Løken in Løten before Botolv's eve.
The letter in modern English
To all men who see or hear this letter, Andres Sigurdsson and Pål Einarsson, lawman in Oslo, send God's greeting and their own. We make known to you that, as Lord Erling Vidkunsson, the king's drottsete in Norway, bade us on the king's behalf, we came to upper Hjelpargarden on the Friday before Trinity in the fourth year of the reign of our worthy lord Magnus, by God's mercy king of Norway, Sweden and Götaland (20 May 1323), into the bedchamber of Steingard bonde, where he then lay sick. We heard the claim and complaint that Torstein Torleiksson then had against Steingard and Toralv flokksauke concerning two øresbol of land and twenty [probably penningsbol, uncertain interpretation] in Bjørke in Løten parish in Hedmarken. Torstein complained on behalf of his wedded wife Ragnhild Halvardsdatter that Steingard had bought this from Sigurd, her father's brother, and from Sigrid, Ragnhild's father's mother, who was called Heidmork, after Ragnhild's father had died, as if she were not to inherit from her father. Steingard answered that he thought he had bought lawfully, because he said he did not know that Halvard left a legitimate daughter when he died.
Original text
Ollum monnum þeim sem þetta bref sia eða hœyra senda Andres Sighurða son Pall Einars son loghmaðr j Oslo q. g. ok sina. [vit gerom] yðr kunnikt at eftir þui sem herra Erlinggr Viðkunna son drotsete kononghsans j Noreghe baud okr a kononghsans v[egna] komom vit j Hialpara garð œfra a friadaghen nesta firir trinitatis mœsso a fiorða are rikis vars vyrðulaghs herra Magnusar með guðs miskun Noreghs Suia ok Gota kononghs j suæfnstofuo Stæingarðz bonda sem han la þa krankkr j.
Background
Erling Vidkunsson had been chosen as drottsete (steward of the realm) in February 1323, and here we see him using the office: he sends two men to have the case clarified. At its heart is an inheritance. Ragnhild claimed she was Halvard's lawful daughter and heir, while the buyer Steingard held that he had bought the land lawfully from her paternal uncle and grandmother. So someone had to prove that her parents had been lawfully betrothed, and the witnesses who had been present lived in the Faroes. A book witness means that the witnesses swore on the book, that is the gospel book. An øresbol was a unit of land measured by land rent, the rent the land yielded. The letter does not concern the family's own estate, and it is included because Erling gives the order.
People: Erling Vidkunsson