Sverreætten

The House of Sverre was the Norwegian royal dynasty founded by Sverre Sigurdsson, a priest from the Faroe Islands who claimed to be an illegitimate son of King Sigurd II. He took command of the rebel Birkebeiner party in 1177 and made himself sole king after the Battle of Fimreite in 1184, though his quarrel with the Church ended in excommunication in 1194 and a new round of civil war.

Under his grandson Haakon IV the civil wars ended and Norway reached the height of its medieval power. The male line ran out with Haakon V in 1319, when the crown passed to his daughter Ingeborg's son Magnus VII of the House of Bjelbo.

Through Ingeborg the Sverre blood entered the House of Oldenburg, reaching Christian I, king of Denmark from 1448 and of Norway from 1450.