Harald Gilli, the Firs I Pretender 2 7 1 



the collectors of the king's revenue from the different 

 districts of the country. But they were likewise men 

 of noble birth and of great local influence. We may 

 consider them as representing the hersar, the second 

 order of nobility in Norway ; and albeit they boasted 

 among their number no houses so imposing as the old 

 Lade house, and that we do not read of any individuals 

 among them so illustrious as Einar Tambarskelfir, yet 

 as a body, they were much more powerful than any 

 aristocratic body that had yet existed in the country. 

 Then the aristocracy became self -destructive by rushing 

 into civil war. This is the history which we have 

 now to follow. It has many points of similarity to the 

 history of the fall of our old baronage in the Wars 

 of the Eoses. 



During the latter years of Sigurd the Crusader's 

 reign there appeared upon the scene a young man 

 out of Ireland, who declared that he was a son of 

 Sigurd's father, Magnus Bareleg, and by an Irish 

 mother. Magnus had never acknowledged this son ; 

 for all men knew he had never heard of him. But the 

 newcomer, Harald by name, underwent the ordeal of 

 fire to prove his royal birth, and Sigurd, ]\lagnus' son, 

 acknowledged him as his half-brother. On Sicjurd's 

 death, in a.d. 1130, the kingdom was divided between 

 his son Magnus and this Harald, called Gilli or Gille- 

 Christ — ' that liar,' as his nephew Magnus called him. 

 The two rulers soon quarrelled, and flew to arms to 

 vindicate their respective claims. Harald had the 

 strongest support. He defeated his (supposed) nephew 

 in a battle fought at Foreleif in Bohuslan, 



