Eystein II of Norway Eystein Haraldsson ( Old Norse : " Eysteinn Haraldsson " , Norwegian : " Øystein Haraldsson " ) ; c . 1125 – 1157 ) was king of Norway from 1142 to 1157 . He ruled as co - ruler with his brothers , Inge Haraldsson and Sigurd Munn . He was killed in the power - struggle against his brother , Inge , in an early stage of the civil war era in Norway . Origins . Eystein was born , apparently in Scotland , the son of Harald Gille , who was king of Norway from 1130 to 1136 , and a woman whose Gaelic name is rendered in the old Norse sagas as " Bjaðök " . Harald was born and raised in Ireland or Scotland , and Eystein was born there . When Harald went to Norway in 1127 to press his claim to royal inheritance , Eystein did not go with him . However , Harald let it be known that he had fathered a son before coming to Norway . Reign . Eystein first appears in the sagas in 1142 , when several Norwegian lendmenn travelled west and fetched him back to Norway from Scotland . His mother came with him to Norway . There , he was recognised as king , and given a share of the kingdom with his younger brothers . The division of the kingdom does not seem to have been territorial , all brothers seem to have held equal regal status over all parts of the country . This period of their reign saw the establishment of an independent Norwegian Archiepiscopacy in Nidaros ( Trondheim ) in 1152 . The sagas Heimskringla and Orkneyinga saga relates that at some point in the early 1150s , king Eystein went on a campaign to Scotland and England . He captured Harald Maddadson , earl of Orkney in Caithness , and forced him to ransom himself for a considerable sum . He then proceeded to loot along the Scottish and English coast , attacking Aberdeen , Hartlepool and Whitby , in a voyage reminiscent of the earlier viking expeditions . Civil war . According to the sagas , relations between the three brothers were peaceful as long as the two younger brothers ' guardians were alive . But as the younger brothers grew up , tensions arose . In 1155 , a meeting between the brothers in Bergen resulted in fighting breaking out between the men of king Inge and king Sigurd , in which king Sigurd was killed . King Eystein was late in arriving for the meeting , and only approached the city after Sigurd was already dead . An uneasy settlement was reached between Inge and Eystein . The reasons for the fighting in Bergen remain disputed . According to the sagas , Eystein and Sigurd had plotted to strip Inge of his royal title and divide his share of the kingdom between them . Some modern historians doubt this version , seeing it as Inge ’ s excuse for his own aggressive actions . In any event , peace between Inge and Eystein did not hold for long after the events of 1155 . In 1157 , both sides gathered their forces for a confrontation . Inge ’ s forces outnumbered Eystein ’ s , and when they met , on the west coast near Moster , Eystein ’ s forces melted away . Eystein was forced to flee , over land to Viken ( the Oslofjord - area ) . Abandoned by his own men , he was caught , somewhere in the area of present day Bohuslän , and killed by his captors . Whether or not king Inge ordered his killing seems to have been a disputed question at the time . Eystein ' s body was buried in the church of " Foss " in Tunge Hundred . According to Heimskringla , the local population of the area started worshipping Eystein as a saint . Aftermath . After Eystein ' s death , his supporters rallied around the young Haakon the Broadshouldered , Sigurd Munn ' s son , Eystein ' s nephew . They continued the war against king Inge , in an early stage of the so - called " civil war era " , which was to last on and off until 1240 . The sagas draw a rather negative picture of both Eystein and his brother Sigurd , generally choosing to portray Inge as the just ruler of the three brothers . Heimskringla writes of Eystein : Eystein was married to Ragna Nikolasdottir , a Norwegian gentlewoman . His bastard son Eystein Meyla was proclaimed king by the Birkebeiner party in 1176 , but was defeated and killed the year after . Sources . The main sources to Eystein ’ s reign are the kings ’ sagas Heimskringla , Fagrskinna , Morkinskinna and Ágrip . The three former base at least part of their account on the older saga Hryggjarstykki , which was written some time between 1150 and 1170 , and was thus a near - contemporary source . This saga itself has not been preserved .