The pope permits the marriage between Sigurd and Ingeborg
DN 6/166 · 29 Septbr. 1342 · Avignon
What the letter says
Archbishop Pål of Nidaros and Bishop Halvard of Hamar petition Pope Clement VI for a dispensation so that Sigurd Havtoresson and Ingeborg Erlingsdatter may marry, even though they are related in the fourth degree. Parents, relatives and other magnates had negotiated the marriage to preserve peace between the parties and avert conflict in the realm, and the two were already betrothed. On 29 September 1342 in Avignon the pope gives Bishop Salomon of Oslo authority to grant the dispensation and declare the children legitimate, if the information is correct.
The letter in modern English (excerpt)
The supplication (the petition to the pope): Your Holiness's most devoted Archbishop of Nidaros and Bishop of Hamar in the kingdom of Norway let you know that the parents and relatives of the noble young lord Sigurd Havtoresson and the noble young woman Ingeborg Erlingsdatter, of the dioceses of Oslo and Nidaros, who belong to the foremost in the realm, and several other magnates of the realm, have negotiated a marriage between these two. The purpose was to preserve peace and concord between the parties and their followers, and to avert the dangers that could strike the whole realm if strife and discord arose between them. The two are related to each other in the fourth degree, and in the hope of obtaining a dispensation from the Holy See they have entered into a betrothal with words of future marriage. Therefore the archbishop and the bishop humbly ask that you grant the two a dispensation, so that they may lawfully enter into marriage despite the impediment of their kinship, and that children of the marriage be declared legitimate. For such a marriage is expected to bring the realm and the church many benefits, and if it does not come about, there is reason to fear serious strife and scandal. The pope's endorsement: It shall be arranged through the local bishop, if the facts are so. R. Given at Avignon on 29 September in the first year of our pontificate (1342). The papal letter itself (according to the printed edition): Bishop Clement, servant of the servants of God, to our venerable brother the Bishop of Oslo, greeting and apostolic blessing.
Original text (excerpt)
Significant sanctitati vestre deuotissimi vestri . . . archiepiscopus Nidrosiensis, et . . . episcopus Hamarensis in regno Norwegie, quod olim parentes et cognati nobilis domicelli Sigwardi Hafthorie, et nobilis domicelle Jngiburge Erlingi Osloensis, et Nidrosiensis diocesium qui de nobilioribus dicti regni existunt, et nonnulli alij nobiles et proceres dicti regni, ad conseruandam pacem et vnitatem inter partes predictas et eorum sequaces, et obuiandum periculis que ex discordijs et discentioni
Background
Ingeborg was the daughter of the drottsete Erling Vidkunsson of Giske and Bjarkøy, and Sigurd Havtoresson of Sudreim in Romerike was a grandson of King Håkon V through his mother. Church law forbade marriage between relatives down to the fourth degree, that is, between persons who had great great grandparents in common, and then the pope had to grant a dispensation, that is, an exemption from the rule. The pope resided at Avignon in southern France in these years. The petition states outright that the marriage was to secure peace between two powerful parties, and this suggests that there had been tension between the Bjarkøy family and the Havtoresson brothers. The marriage became very important for Giske: Ingeborg received Giske from her father in 1354, and through her and Sigurd the estate passed to the Sudreim family and later to Sigurd Jonsson. Papal letters like this were preserved because they proved that the marriage was valid and the children entitled to inherit.