Norway, Kingdom of (13th–14th centuries)

• Main Author: Thomas, Sarah
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2016
• Subjects: Jemtland; Norway; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe162; http://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2F9781118455074.wbeoe162; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe162

Abstract The kingdom of Norway in the 13th and 14th centuries consisted of mainland Norway, plus the northeastern territory of Jemtland and the western island communities of the North Atlantic. The key trend of the period was the process by which these Norse communities became and remained part of the Norwegian kingdom, despite the increasingly distant rule from Sweden from the 1300s. The expansion of the Norwegian kingdom into the North Atlantic was achieved not by conquest, but through political maneuvering which led to the incorporation of territories with a similar Scandinavian culture and language. Ideologically the expansion was based on contemporary 13th‐century concepts of kingship current in Europe. This ideology argued that every territory, even those with more autonomy, should be firmly under the control of a king.