Battle of Florvåg

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.

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.

[5] Sigurd Magnusson was sent westwards to Norðreyjar in 1192, and gained the military support of the Jarl Harald Maddadsson who provided the rebels with a longship.

[1][4] The army sailed to Viken (the south-eastern part of Norway) in 1193 with 23 ships and 2,000 men, and had Sigurd proclaimed king at the Haugating.

Sigurd and the Eyjarskeggjars took up their base in Bergen for the winter, although they failed to take the city castle Sverresborg which was defended by 300 loyal Birkebeiners.

[1] After hearing news of the Eyjarskeggjar offence, Sverre gathered his troops and sailed south from his base in Nidaros (Trondheim) with 20 ships.

When Sverre was closing in on Bergen on 2 April, the Eyjas rskeggjarwent to their ships and sailed across Byfjorden to the bay of Florvåg, off the southeastern side of the island Askøy.

The only bishop who opposed the coronation, in line with the Church's policy, was Nicholas Arnesson, whom Sverris saga accuses of being behind the Eyjarskeggjar revolt, a claim that is considered unsubstantiated by modern historians.

[17] Sigurd Jarlsson, a surviving Eyjarskeggjar leader, was in Bergen during the battle although he did not take part himself, and fled to Telemark when he received news of the defeat.

The detour to Telemark before he later arrived in Denmark is known from two runic inscriptions that were discovered in the Vinje stave church when it was demolished in 1796, one of them having been written by Sigurd himself.