Anders Olson Lysne (born 1764, died 1803), was a farmer who led the

Lærdal Lærdal is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located on the south side of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Lærdalsøyri. The old Filefjell Kon ...

farmers' rebellion from 1800 to 1802. The rebellion began after the government of Denmark-Norway ordered that the farmers of Lærdal had to do compulsory military service in addition to compulsory labor on The Bergen King's Road. The farmers in Lærdal had been exempted from military service due to the heavy duty work on the stretch of road that went from Lærdal over the mountain pass known as

Filefjell Filefjell is a mountainous area in Norway. It is located between Lærdal in the Vestland county and Valdres in Innlandet county. It is the historical, as well as modern, main route, linking Western Norway and Eastern Norway. The European route E16 ...

and to the district of

Valdres Valdres () is a traditional district in central, southern Norway, situated between the districts of Gudbrandsdalen and Hallingdal. The region of Valdres consists of the six municipalities of Nord-Aurdal, Sør-Aurdal, Øystre Slidre, Vestre Slidre ...

. The rebellion lasted for two years until the rebels were defeated on 9 July 1802 when the government sent 500 men led by Lieutenant Wilhelm Jürgensen, to Lærdal to crush the rebellion. Lysne was then captured, and he was sentenced to death and beheaded in June 1803 in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

. Lynse was executed for

Lèse-majesté Lèse-majesté () or lese-majesty () is an offence against the dignity of a ruling head of state (traditionally a monarch but now more often a president) or the state itself. The English name for this crime is a borrowing from the French, w ...

. Refusing to obey the King's commands was considered treason against the country, in an

absolute monarchy Absolute monarchy (or Absolutism as a doctrine) is a form of monarchy in which the monarch rules in their own right or power. In an absolute monarchy, the king or queen is by no means limited and has absolute power, though a limited constitut ...

(Denmark-Norway was an absolute monarchy at the time), this was in practise equal to treason against the King himself, i.e. lèse majesté. Lysne was around the age of 41 when he was executed. Lysne was the only leader of the revolt to be sentenced to death. The other leaders of the uprising were sentenced to imprisonment. After the uprising, the farmers military service was organized as the Lærdal Light Infantry Company and its first commander was Wilhelm Jürgensen.

Legacy

Lysne is not as known as other Norwegian farmer rebel leaders from the last years of the Danish-Norwegian Union, like Jochum de Lange (''

Strilekrigen Strilekrigen was a farmer's rebellion that took place in Bergen in Norway (at the time in a union with Denmark) on 18 April 1765, when about 2,000 common people from Nordhordland poured into Bergen to protest against the harsh action of the ex ...

'') and

Christian Jensen Lofthuus Christian Jensen Lofthuus (Kristian Jenssøn Lofthus) (15 May 1750 - 13 June 1797) was a prominent farmer from Risør, Norway. Between 1786-87, he led a large peasant revolt in Norway which became known as the '' Lofthusreisingen''. Biography Lof ...

. The Lærdal rebellion was the last big farmers rebellion before the end of the union in 1814. Lysne was also the last person in Norway executed for Lèse majesté. In 2003, 200 years after his execution, a re-enactment of his execution was performed to commemorate Lysne. ''Anders Olson Lysne'' (Allkunne)
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lysne, Anders Olson 1764 births 1803 deaths Norwegian rebels 19th-century rebels Norwegian farmers Executed Norwegian people People executed by Norway by decapitation People from Lærdal 19th-century executions by Norway