by Emma of Normandy, the surviving Queen of his friend, to assist her
against Knute; but as he found a paction concluded between that King
and the English, he soon withdrew, and was then created King of Norway
by the voice of the nation. To strengthen his throne, he married the
daughter of the King of Swedeland; but now his strict adherence to
the Christian faith, and his active zeal for the spread of it, caused
him to be molested by domestic wars, as well as by the Danes abroad:
though these he regarded not, since he piously and valiantly professed,
that he had rather lose his life and Kingdom than his faith in Christ.
Upon this, the men of Norway complained to Knute, King of Denmark,
and afterwards of England, charging Olaf with altering their laws and
customs, and entreating his assistance; but the Norwegian hero was
supported by a young soldier named Amandus, King of Swethland, who had
been bred up under Olaf, and taught to fight by him. He, at first,
overthrew the Dane in an engagement; but Knute, having bribed the
adverse fleet, procured three hundred of his ships to revolt, and then
attacking Olaf, forced him to retreat into his own country, where his
subjects received him as an enemy. He fled from the disloyal Pagans to
Jerislaus, King of Russia, who was his brother-in-law, and remained
with him till the better part of his subjects, in the commotions of
the Kingdom, calling him to resume his crown, he went at the head of
an army; when, whilst one party hailed his return with joy, the other,
urged by Knute, opposed him by force, and in a disloyal battle at
Stichstadt, to the North of Drontheim, says Newcourt, page 510, with
considerable pathos, they ‘murthered this holy friend of Christ, this
most innocent King, in Anno 1028,’ but he should have said 1030. His
feast is commemorated on the fourth of the Kalends of August, that is
to say on the 29th of July; for Grimkele, Bishop of Drontheim, his
capital City, a pious priest whom he had brought from England to assist
him in establishing Christianity in Norway, commanded that he should be
honoured as a Saint, with the title of Martyr. His body was buried in
Drontheim, and was not only found undecayed in 1098, but even in 1541,
when the Lutherans plundered his shrine of its gold and jewels; for it
was esteemed the greatest treasure in the North. Such was St. Olave,
to whose memory no less than four Churches in London are dedicated;
for, says Newcourt, he ‘had well deserved, and was well beloved of our
English Nation, as well for his friendship for assisting them against
the Danes, as for his holy and Christian life, by the erection of many
Churches which to his honourable memory they built and dedicated to
him.’ I notice only one of these, because it is contiguous to London
Bridge, which is called St. Olave, Southwark. It stands, as you very
well know, on the Northern side of Tooley Street; and although many
people would think St. Tooley to be somewhat of a questionable patron
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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