Erik I

▪ king of Norway and Northumberland

byname  Erik Bloodax,  Norwegian  Eirik BlodØks 

died 954, Stainmore, Eng.

      king of Norway (c. 930–935) and later king of Northumberland (948, 952–954). On the death of his father, Harald I Fairhair, first king of united Norway, Erik attempted to make himself sole king of Norway, defeating and slaying two of his brothers to whom vassal kingdoms had been assigned by their father; but his tyranny fostered the reaction that had set in against the strong rule of Harald. Another son, Haakon, who had been brought up in England, was invited to Norway by dissident nobles and succeeded in ejecting Erik.

      Much later Erik turned up in Northumbria, once a Viking stronghold but at this time under English overlordship; there he established himself as king in 948 but was driven out the same year. In 952 he returned, only to be expelled again in 954, when King Eadred of England took the Northumbrian kingdom into his own hands. Erik was slain the same year at Stainmore. With his expulsion, the line of Norse kings in York ended.

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