THE KING'S MIRROR 203 



it and have acquired it honestly, while he gets it who can 

 most readily deprive others by theft and plunder. And 

 when such a time comes upon a nation, it will suffer 

 loss in good morals and capable men, wealth and se- 

 curity, and every blessing as long as God permits the 

 plague to continue. But He metes out according to His 

 mercy, for He is able to save such a country, when He 

 finds that the people have been sufficiently chastised 

 for their sins. Now you can imagine how highly moral 

 the people will become/if such a nation is saved by GooVs 

 grace and again brought under the rule of a single 

 monarch, and how prosperous the realm may become 

 in the period immediately following such an unrest as 

 I have just described. For then the kingdom, was rent, 

 the morals of the people were confused, and their loyalty 

 was divided among a number of lords, each one of whom 

 was striving to contrive and employ against the others 

 cunning, deception, disloyalty, and evil in every form.i/ / 



XXXVII . 



THE DUTIES, ACTIVITIES, AND AMUSEMENTS 

 OF THE ROYAL GUARDSMEN 



Son. It is perfectly evident that if all these misfor- 

 tunes should befall a kingdom and the period of trouble 



* In this chapter the author has summed up the history of Norwegian king- 

 ship in the twelfth century, when minorities were frequent and joint king- 

 ships almost the rule. Three boys were proclaimed kings in 1103; two kings 

 shared the power in 1130; the royal title fell to three children in 1136. At no 

 time was the realm actually divided, the theory being that the administra- 

 tion and the revenues might be divided, while the monarchy remained a unit. 

 The century was a period of great calamities; pretenders were numerous; and 

 civil war raged at intervals. For a fuller discussion of the theory of Norwegian 

 kingship in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, see above, pp. 35 ff. 



