Which Norwegian king led a crusade to the Holy Land from 1107 to 1110? Sigurd I. Also called Sigurd the Crusader or Sigurd Jorsalfar, he was Norway’s king from 1103 until 1130 and the first European monarch known to personally visit the Holy Land on crusade.
Sigurd sailed from Norway in 1107 with about 60 ships and 5,000 men. The expedition stopped in England and Iberia before fighting Muslim forces in the Balearic Islands. In 1110, Sigurd reached the eastern Mediterranean and joined King Baldwin I of Jerusalem in the capture of Sidon.
After the campaign, Sigurd travelled through Constantinople, where Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos received him. Sigurd reportedly gave his ships to the emperor and continued home by land. The Norwegian Crusade is sometimes described as a pilgrimage rather than a conventional crusade, but its leader and answer remain clear.
The other options are different Norwegian rulers: Magnus Barefoot was Sigurd’s father, Olaf III ruled earlier, and Harald Hardrada died decades before the expedition.