[1] Inge’s father, Bård, was a prominent lendmann from the Trøndelag region and a descendant of Tostig Godwinson.

Sverre’s old adversaries, the bagler, were exploiting the situation to launch a new invasion of Viken under their king, Erling Steinvegg.

After the infant king Guttorm’s death in August 1204, the birkebeiner needed a strong leader to oppose the bagler threat.

The birkebeiner leaders wanted earl Haakon the Crazy, who had earlier been appointed to rule the kingdom in king Guttorm’s infancy.

A compromise was reached, whereby Inge became king, while earl Haakon became leader of the army, and received half the royal income.

The next year, the 'birkebeiner' launched a successful attack on the 'bagler' stronghold of Tønsberg, but the war dragged on with neither side able to gain a decisive victory.

In autumn of 1207, archbishop Tore of Nidaros and bishop Nikolas of Oslo, a prominent 'bagler', started negotiations for a settlement of the dispute.

They succeeded in bringing about a meeting between kings Inge, Philip, and earl Haakon, at Kvitsøy in Rogaland in the autumn of 1208.

He never achieved control over all of Norway, and agreed to a power-sharing with the bagler, which he stuck to even though Philip broke the agreement by continuing to style himself as "king".

As a reaction to such views, others have claimed that Inge was a strong ruler, in that he was able to withstand the pressure of the more war-like among the birkebeiner and put a halt to the destructive civil wars for a time.

The bagler sagas - a contemporary source - describes Inge as a quiet and calm man, who shied away from feasting and preferred to spend his time in his own quarters with close friends - a character trait which was held against him by some of his men.