Kingdom of Norway (872-1397)

The Kingdom of Norway in this period, sometimes called the Norwegian Realm, traces its origin to the unification of Norway's fragmented coastal territories under Harald Fairhair beginning in 872. At its territorial peak between 1240 and 1319 the kingdom covered modern Norway along with Swedish territories such as Jamtland, Harjedalen and Bohuslan, and Norwegian seafarers had also brought Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Shetland, Orkney and the Hebrides into the realm as dependencies or tax territories. The kingdom's power reached its height under Haakon IV, who died in 1263, aided by the ecclesiastical authority centered at Nidaros, but it declined sharply after the Black Death of 1349 to 1351 devastated its population and noble class. Independent Norwegian rule ended in 1397 when Margaret I of Denmark brought the kingdom into the Kalmar Union together with Denmark and Sweden under a single crown, closing nearly 525 years of Norwegian self-government.