Haakon VI of Hordaland (The Kalmar Union)

Haakon VI reigned over a Hordaland much disrupted by civil strife. His own brother Eric II had been killed by disgruntled lords in 1256 and Haakon was lucky enough to find himself amongst friends in Stavanger when the news reached him, whereas if he had been in Bergen he may well have suffered the same fate.

Gathering allies he forged a small army which engaged the rebels winning a partial victory. Haakon would never land the hammer blow he desired against the opposition and the remainder of his reign would be taken up with the pacification of the Hordalandic realm. Mediocrity on the battlefield could only do so much and he granted several important laws which tightened up the laxness of Eric II's later reign at the expense of royal power. Haakon fought his last battle at Vindafjord in May 1266 by which time the rebellion had largely subsided.

This preoccupation with domestic troubles left Hordaland out of the major trends of Scandinavia and their would be little Hordalandic involvement in the emergent civil war in Svealand. Meanwhile Man would be left to its own devices.

His first marriage to Estrid Erlingsdotter appears to have been born out of political expedience but remained childless. Estrid died a year before he became king and, already recognized as heir apparent, he remarried 'with haste' to Ingeborg Sverresdotter, who may have already been his mistress anyway, and was probably pregnant at the time. A male heir, Eric, would be born in 1260 and he would duly succeed Haakon when he died in 1268.