In the 1860s, barrister and MP Charles Elton drew his readers’ attention to English historic ties with Bergen in Norway. He reminded them that our country’s first trade deal had been with the Norwegians, that English and Scottish missionaries had spread Christianity there, and that Olaf Tryggvason, one of Norway’s earliest kings, had been baptised in the Isles of Scilly.

Elton quoted from a speech by King Sverre of Norway, from the days of Henry II, expressing his gratitude to English merchants for bringing much-valued trade to Bergen. Sverre added his regret that German traders from the Hanse towns could neither offer such useful goods, nor behave with such sober decorum.

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