For several centuries, Iceland’s chieftains (goðar) held sway over a Commonwealth that prized shared governance and local autonomy. By the mid-13th century, however, a period of unrest known as the Age of the Sturlungs set the stage for a dramatic change. Civil strife, fuelled in part by efforts from the Norwegian crown to extend its power into Icelandic society, made stability increasingly elusive.
Negotiating the Old Covenant
Between 1262 and 1264, key Icelandic leaders negotiated an agreement with Haakon IV of Norway and his son, Magnus the Lawgiver. This pact, known in modern Icelandic as “Gamli sáttmáli” and sometimes as “Gissurarsáttmáli” after the influential chieftain Gissur Þorvaldsson, brought Iceland under the rule of the Norwegian king and initiated a new era. Under its terms, Icelanders became taxpayers (skattþegnar) to the Norwegian monarchy.
In return, the Norwegian king committed to regular shipping links, with at least six ships a year to bring necessities, though this obligation was inconsistently fulfilled. The agreement also granted Icelanders and Norwegians equal rights in each other’s territories, and promised the protection of law and peace. Laws governing Iceland were updated, culminating in the Jónsbók law book in 1281. The arrangement formalised the gradual erosion of the chieftains’ role and oriented Iceland’s political structures towards monarchy.
Centuries of changing rule and debate
The union with Norway eventually connected Iceland to Denmark as well, following the Kalmar Union in 1380 and later treaties, lasting until the formation of the Republic of Iceland during World War II. In 1302, the arrangement was renewed under a new Norwegian king, and the relationship persisted, with some interruptions and renegotiations, until modern times.
The reasons for the chieftains’ agreement with the crown remain a subject of debate. Historians have suggested motivations ranging from exhaustion with civil war, to the hope of lasting peace, concerns about royal embargoes, influence from the Church, and a lack of modern nationalist ideas. Some viewed the monarch’s power as simply overwhelming compared to local authority.
The authenticity of the Old Covenant itself has become a matter of historical controversy. The oldest surviving copies date from the fifteenth century, and some scholars, including Patricia Pires Boulhosa, have argued that the document known as Gamli sáttmáli may be a later creation used to bolster Iceland’s position in negotiations with foreign powers. These accounts illustrate how historical memory and political needs often intertwine.
Despite debate over its origins, the Old Covenant played a long-lasting role in Icelandic political arguments. In the nineteenth century, as movements for independence gained strength under the leadership of Jón Sigurðsson, appeals to the covenant’s original provisions became a powerful rhetorical tool. For Icelanders, it came to symbolise their historical relationship with distant monarchs, and, eventually, their efforts to reclaim sovereignty.
Sources
- Wikipedia
- Wikipedia (Icelandic) in Icelandic
