Battle of Florvåg

The Battle of Florvåg (Norwegian: Slaget ved Florvåg) was a naval battle that was fought on 3 April 1194 between King Sverre Sigurdsson, leader of the Birkebeiner party, and Sigurd Magnusson, the Eyjarskeggjar party pretender. Although there had been previous revolts during Sverre's reign following his usurpation of the throne in 1184, the revolt in support of Sigurd Magnusson (son of former king Magnus Erlingsson) became far more threatening than the attempts of previous pretenders. In a larger context, the battle was part of the century-long civil war era in Norway.

As Sigurd was a minor, the actual leaders behind the revolt were Hallkjell Jonsson and Olav Jarlsmåg. The Eyjarskeggjars recruited their initial army in Orkney and Shetland (hence their name, meaning "island-men"), returned to Norway in 1193, and quickly took control over a large part of the country. Based in Bergen for the winter, the Eyjarskeggjar fleet relocated to the nearby bay of Florvåg off Askøy in anticipation of the arrival of Sverre's Birkebeiner fleet from Niðaros (Trondheim). The battle began with a surprise attack by the Birkebeiners during night. Although the Eyjarskeggjars gained the upper hand for most of the battle and victory eventually seemed within reach, their ships were caught in a current during the final stages of the battle. This caused them to become easy prey for the Birkebeiner, who in the end won the battle decisively and extinguished the majority of the Eyjarskeggjar army, including their leaders.