Battle of Fimreite in Norway

June 16, 1177

The Norwegian pretender Sverre Sigurdsson, leading the Birkebeiner rebels, won a decisive naval battle on the Sognefjord against King Magnus V Erlingsson's fleet. Magnus drowned trying to swim to shore in his mail. Sverre claimed the crown and began a new dynasty over Norwegian chaos. His saga, partly dictated to an Icelandic scribe, is one of the most vivid and self-serving royal biographies of the medieval North.