local farmers of Oppland and the Bagler party in Norway was dissolved. A new Bagler pretender, Erling Steinvegg, soon appeared in Denmark, but declined to renew the fighting, as he saw little chance of succeeding against Håkon. Håkon was thus the undisputed ruler of the country. Håkon appears to have had a troubled relationship with his father's queen, Margareta Eriksdotter. After Sverre's death, Margareta attempted to return to her native Sweden with her daughter by Sverre, Kristina. Håkon's men forcibly separated her from her daughter, as he wanted to keep her at his court. Subsequently, Margareta seemingly settled with Håkon and went to his court. During Christmas in 1203, Håkon fell ill after a bloodletting, and on 1 January 1204 he died. His death was suspected as poisoning and his stepmother Margareta was suspected of the crime. In the end she had one of her men undergo a trial by ordeal on her behalf to prove her innocence, but the man was badly burned. This was taken as proof of her guilt, and she had to flee back to Sweden. Håkon Sverresson was not married, and at his death no heirs were known. He was therefore succeeded by his 4-year-old nephew Guttorm Sigurdsson. But after his death a woman, Inga Olafsdatter of Varteig, whom Håkon had taken as a mistress for a time in 1203, appeared at the Birkebeiner court with an infant son who she claimed was Håkon's son. The child had been born in present-day Østfold after the death of the putative father. The boy, named Håkon after his father, later became King Håkon IV. In the summer of 1218, Inga underwent a successful trial by ordeal (bore iron) in Bergen to show the paternity of her son. During Håkon's brief reign, he managed to release Norway from the church's interdict, and end the civil wars, at least for a time. Whether the peace would have lasted if he had been allowed to live is impossible to say. As it turned out, his early death sparked a renewal of the fighting, as the bagler pretender Erling Steinvegg in a matter of months gathered an army and went to Norway to claim the throne. Håkon was buried in the old cathedral in Bergen. The cathedral was demolished in 1531, and the site is today marked by a memorial. Our main sources to Håkon's life are Sverris saga and the