Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/209

 and relative importance of different countries, about the middle of the 13th century, than the consequence of any conspiracy or treachery. Snorro returned to Reikholt, and, divorcing his first wife, married his second wife, for the sake, it is alleged, of her large fortune, and became the richest, and probably the most unhappy man of his day, in Iceland. He was involved in disputes and lawsuits with his sons and his wife's family, who appear to have had just and legal claims to their shares of the properties which he continued to keep in his own possession. He appears to have visited Norway once, if not twice again, before or about the year 1237, and to have attached himself to the party of Duke Skule, who had claims on the succession to the crown of Norway. In 1237, Snorro returned to Iceland, and Duke Skule assumed the title of king at Drontheim, in opposition to his son-in-law, King Hakon Hakonson; but in the following year he and his son were slain. Snorro Sturleson, as a friend or adherent of Duke Skule, was declared a traitor by King Hakon. As the king's chamberlain, he might in that age, although not a Norwegian subject, be considered a traitor. Letters from the king were issued to his enemies to bring him prisoner to Norway, or to put him to death; and on this authority his relations, with whom he was in enmity in a family feud,—his three sons-in-law, Gissur, Kolbein, and Arne,—came by night, in September 1241, to his residence at Keikholt, and murdered him in the 63rd year of his age. The same party, two years afterwards, brought Iceland under subjection to the crown of Norway. It seems unjust to throw upon the memory of Snorro Sturleson, as far as the circumstances can be made out, the imputation of having sought to betray the independence of his country, when no overt act of his appears to have tended to that result, and when his enemies, who