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Lady Inger and Her Family: Norway's Exemplar of Mixed Motives in the Reformation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

K. E. Christopherson
K. E. Christopherson
Affiliation:
Mr. Christopherson is professor of religion in Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington.
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Extract

No woman played the main role in the sixteenth-century Reformation in any country. But in Norway's Reformation Lady Inger of Austraat and two of her sons-in-law, Vincens Lunge and Nils Lykke, stand out as central and dramatic figures. Yet since Norway is a land that was then a backwater eddy in history, this Reformation tends to be overlooked. Thus historians have not recognized Lady Inger's important role.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , March 1986 , pp. 21 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1986

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References

1. The late Roland Bainton twice expressed to me oral regrets that he had not been aware of Lady Inger when he wrote his three-volume Women of the Reformation.

2. Koht, Halvdan, “Ingerd Ottesdatter,” Norsk biografisk leksikon, vol. 6 (Oslo, 1934), pp. 519–520.Google Scholar

3. Bull, Edvard, Vincens Lunge (Kristiania, 1917) p. 12;Google ScholarSteen, Sverre, “Vincens Lunge,” Norsk biografisk leksikon, vol. 8 (Oslo, 1938), pp. 531–532.Google Scholar

4. Bull, , Vincens Lunge, p.8;Google ScholarBenedictow, Ole Jørgen, Fra rike til provins, 1448–1536, vol.5, in Norges historie, ed. Mykland, Knut (Oslo, 1977), p. 368.Google Scholar

5. Steen, , “Vincens Lunge,” pp. 532–533;Google ScholarBenedictow, , Fra rike til provins, p. 369.Google Scholar

6. Benedictow, , Fra rike til provins, p. 369;Google ScholarSteen, , “Vincens Lunge,” pp. 533–534.Google Scholar

7. Bull, , Vincens Lunge, p. 55.Google Scholar

8. Koht, , “Ingerd Ottesdatter,” p. 521.Google Scholar

9. Daae, Ludwig, “Fru Inger Ottesdatter og hendes Doetre,” Historisk tidsskrift 3 (1875): 245, 274.Google Scholar

10. Petersen, Erling Ladewig, “Frederik I, Tyge Krabbe og Vincens Lunge,” Historisk tidsskrift 51 (1972): 101–111.Google Scholar

11. Steen, , “Vincens Lunge,” p. 534Google Scholar, gives a good account of the Dal Junker affair.

12. Petersen, , “Frederik I,” p. 132.Google Scholar

13. Steen, , “Vincens Lunge,” pp. 534–535;Google ScholarBull, , Vincens Lunge, pp. 53, 81;Google ScholarDaae, , “Fru Inger,” pp. 282–284.Google Scholar

14. Petersen, , “Frederik I,” p. 142.Google Scholar

15. Diplomatarium norvegicum, 21 vols. (Christiania, 1849–1915), 9: 537–539.Google Scholar

16. Ibid., 5: 771–773.

17. Ibid., 9: 627–628.

18. Ibid., 9: 639–640.

19. Ibid., 8: 674–677.

20. Wisløff, Carl F., Norsk kirkehistorie, 3 vols. (Oslo, 1966), 1: 398.Google Scholar

21. I have seen no other historian who has come to this conclusion—or who has assembled all the fragmentary evidence as in my pattern above. Wisløff, , Norsk kirkehistorie, pp. 393–394Google Scholar, mentions many of the items I list, but does not specifically observe that so many of the Lutheran beginnings occur in the lands owned or controlled by Lady Inger's family, nor that when occurrring in far-flung areas, these often isolated beginnings find their only explanatory connection in that family tie. As I have assembled it, the evidence warrants my conclusion.

22. Bull, , Vincens Lunge, p. 76;Google ScholarSteen, , “Vincens Lunge,” p. 535.Google Scholar

23. Bull, , Vincens Lunge, p. 76.Google Scholar

24. Ibid., p. 75.

25. Ibid., pp. 75–76.

26. Petersen, , “Frederik I,” p. 133.Google Scholar

27. Daae, , “Fru Inger,” pp. 292–293;Google ScholarBull, , Vincens Lunge, pp. 84–86;Google ScholarBergsgaard, Arne, “Olav Engelbriktson, 1523–1527,” in Nidaros erkebispestol og bispesete, 1153–1953 (Oslo, 1955), pp. 548–549.Google Scholar

28. Bull, , Vincens Lunge, p. 87.Google Scholar

29. Ibid., p. 88.

30. Steen, , “Vincens Lunge,” p. 535.Google Scholar

31. Daae, , “Fru Inger,” pp. 301–302;Google ScholarWisløff, , Norsk Kirkehistorie, p. 373.Google Scholar

32. Daae, , “Fru Inger,” pp. 302–303;Google ScholarWisløff, , Norsk Kirkehistorie, pp. 373, 354.Google Scholar

33. Bull, , Vincens Lunge, pp. 91–92;Google ScholarDaae, , “Fru Inger,” pp. 304–305.Google Scholar

34. Bull, , Vincens Lunge, pp. 93–94.Google Scholar

35. Ibid., pp. 95–96.

36. Named after Count Christopher of Oldenburg, the war need not be described further for this article's focus on Lady Inger's family, other than to say that this war further illustrates the mixture of motives in Reformation events. Count Christopher, though evangelical, was chosen by the nearby Lubeck merchants to lead their support for Catholic Christian II (who had often supported the growing middle class) to regain the throne so Lubeck could retain its Hanseatic economic hold over much of Denmark-Norway—a hold that had slipped during Frederik I's ten years of nationalizing and royal power-enhancing policy. In this case economic interests cut across religious lines. See Benedictow, , Fra rike til provins, pp. 421–422.Google Scholar

37. Bull, , Vincens Lunge, pp. 98–99;Google ScholarSteen, , “Vincens Lunge,” p. 536.Google Scholar

38. Bull, , Vincens Lunge, pp. 108–109,Google ScholarDaae, , “Fru Inger,” p. 318.Google Scholar

39. Diplomatorium norvegicum, 7: 50–51.

40. Daae, , “Fru Inger,” p. 319Google Scholar, quotes an unprinted letter from Lunge that mentions this.

41. Ibid., p.319 Bull, , Vincens Lunge, pp. 110–111.Google Scholar

42. Diplomatarium norvegicum 11: 686–687; Daae, , “Fru Inger,” p. 320.Google Scholar

43. Diplomatarium norvegicum 11: 687–688.

44. Ibid., 11: 691–694, 701–702; Daae, , “Fru Inger,” p. 322.Google Scholar

45. Diplomatarium norvegicum 11: 710–713; Daae, , “Fru Inger,” p. 328.Google Scholar

46. Diplomatarium norvegicum 11: 713–714; Daae, , “Fru Inger,” p. 328.Google Scholar

47. Daae, , “Fru Inger,” pp. 328–329.Google Scholar

48. Ibid., pp. 341–342; Bull, , Vincens Lunge, pp. 122–123.Google Scholar

49. Steen, , “Vincens Lunge,” p. 537;Google ScholarBull, , Vincens Lunge, p. 123;Google ScholarDaae, , “Fru Inger,” pp. 332–340.Google Scholar The best short summary of the whole Lykke and Lucie affair and Lykke and Lunge's deaths is in Wisløff, , Norsk kirkehistorie, p. 400.Google Scholar

50. Bull, , Vincens Lunge, p. 125.Google Scholar

51. Koht, , “Ingerd Ottesdatter,” pp. 520–521;Google ScholarDaae, , “Fru Inger,” p. 344.Google Scholar

52. Diplomalarium norvegicum 5: 808–818; 6: 778–780, 783–784.

53. Daae, , “Fru Inger,” pp. 345, 355.Google Scholar

54. lbid., p. 347; Koht, , “Ingerd Ottesdatter,” p. 522.Google Scholar

55. Daae, , “Fru Inger,” pp. 361–363;Google ScholarKoht, , “Ingerd Ottesdatter,” p. 522.Google Scholar