Norwegian Monarch, Roman Catholic Saint. He ruled as the King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. He was born Olaf Haraldsson in Ringerike, Norway, the son of Harald Grenske and Asta Gudbrandsdatter. His father died before he was born and little is known of his early childhood. The primary source of his life is found in Snorri Sturluson's "Heimskringla." Around 1008, when he was a young teenager, he landed with a small force on the Estonian Island of Saaremaa (Osilia) in the Baltic Sea and demanded tribute. During the negotiations, the Osilians gathered their forces and attacked, but he prevailed. In 1014, he set out to return to Norway and reunite it into one kingdom under his rule. Prior to his arrival, he wintered in Normandy with Duke Richard II who had embraced the Christian faith. Olaf also converted to Christianity and in 1015, he returned to Norway and with the support of the five minor kings of the Uplands area, he declared himself king. In 1016, he defeated the Earl Sweyn Hakkonsson, a co-ruler of Norway, at the Battle of Nesjar and within a few years he managed to annihilate all of the lesser kings in the southern region of Norway, as well as ultimately enforcing the acceptance of Christianity throughout the kingdom. In 1019, he married Astrid Olofsdotter, the illegitimate daughter of King Olof Skoktonung of Sweden. His reign was short-lived and in 1026, he lost the Battle of Helgea in which he and Swedish King Anund Jacob attacked Cnut (or Canute) the Great's English and Danish forces at the estuary of the Helgea River in Sweden. The victory left Cnut the dominant leader in Scandinavia and in 1028, Olaf lost the Norwegian throne and was exiled to the Kievan Rus. In 1030, after hearing that Cnut's Norwegian vassal king, Jarl Hakon Eriksson was lost at sea, he seized the opportunity to win back Norway but he was killed at the Battle of Stiklestad, Norway, when his forces engaged a larger Norwegian army consisting of rival nobles and wealthy farmers who were loyal to Cnut. After the battle, his body was secretly buried on the banks of the Nidelva River, south of the city of Trondheim. A year later, his remains were relocated to Saint Clement Church in Trondheim. One hundred years later, the Nidaros Cathedral was built in Trondheim on the site of his original burial location and his body was moved and enshrined in a silver reliquary behind the high altar. He was canonized as Saint Olaf in 1164 by Pope Alexander III. During the Protestant Reformation, his remains was removed from its reliquary (which was utilized for silver coinage) and reburied in another part of the cathedral, its precise location unknown to this day.