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Home , 1020s, Edmund Ironside, Harald III of Denmark, Harold Harefoot, Harthacnut, Kingdom of Dublin

66 The in Britsin The invusions c.954-c.I100 67

The the source of iaw-codes applicable to the whole community heavily nenrnark, and of the Norwegians, and part of the Swedes' five emphasized. This was a great age of vernacular scholarship witfi I*omiatt of his wife, Emma, described him as emperor of visited and was spendidly Alfric and the outstanding scholars. Benedictine monas_ f.jngaorr. On the international scale he ticism flourished in spite of the barbarian raids. But the general ,r..iu.a by both the and the emperor, and negotiated trade on suffering over a period of some twenty years was great. The Daneg ugr..*.ntt to the advantage of . He died at Shaftesbury was buried at seemed for the most part to have the best of both worlds: much loot, il NouemU.r 1035, under forty years of age, and years peace come by at no great cost, and fat efficiently collected for . He had given England nearly twenty of them by the wealthy territorial government of King Ethelred. and ProsPeritY' tur- By l0l4 England was ready to accept the Danish Sweyn as their The succession was uncertain, and fear of a return to the own king, and Ethelred went into exile in . Sweyn's bulence of Ethelred's day led to a series of uneasy compromises and untimely death in February gave the old a further chance. between parties formed around Cnut's two sons, in the Ethelred returned, and his able son and successor, , Harold, and ultimately to the restoration of the old dynasty exile in initially achieved a balance of power with Sweyn's son, Cnut. Derson of , recalled from his Norman The solidity Edmund himself, however, died young, and the Danish Cnut was iO+t Uy Harthacnut, his own younger half-brother. universally recognized as king of the English in late 1016. of the administration, the power of the new earldoms Cnut's victory was followed by a Danish interlude in English created by Cnut, and the presence of a well paid navy helped to near the political history (1016-42') during which descendants of Gorm the preserve stability though there is evidence, too, of violence Old occupied the English . Cnut was one of the great men surface in, for example, the murder of prince Alfred, Edward's of the period, and proved to be a powerful agent in bringing the brother, in 1036 by 's orders, and the harshness of to an end. He stressed continuity with the settled English Harthacnut's tax collectors. proved past. He ordered Emma, Ethelred's widow, to be brought from Edward succeeded Harthacnut in June, 1041, and able peace right Normandy, and married her. Right through to her death in 1052, by skill and luck to keep his kingdom in substantial this Norman princess, the Lady of Winchester, wife to two kings through to the time of his death in the first week of 1066. A deep of England, mother to two more, exercised great pblitical influence. desire to keep the kingdom free from viking ravaging and from civil Cnut continued to use some of Ethelred's close advisers, especially war corrtributed to his success. So did the changes that were coming Wulfstan, , who drafted the king's authoritative over the Northern world itself. Both and were statements of Anglo-Saxon law. He showed all the fervour of the heavily concerned for much of his reign with their own internal convert in upholding and Christian kingship. England affairs, part of the painful process of growth to nationhood' In became his favoured home, even after he succeeded to the Danish making his successful bid for the English throne Harthacnut had throne in 1019. The solemn translation of the relics of the martyred lost control of Danish affairs. The Norwegian prince, Magnus the in archbishop, ,,Elfheah, from to Canterbury in June, 1023, Good. son of St Olaf, took his opportunity, and' already secure also most of the in the presence of King Cnut, Queen Emma and their young son Norway, extended his authority over Denmark for Harthacnut symbolizes the metamorphosis of this young, barbaric until his death in the autumn of 1047. By that date two master prince who had mutilated his hostages in 1014, into a Christian figures had emerged from the tangle of Dano-Norwegian politics king. and dynastic history, Harold Hardrada, King of Norway OA47-66) Cnut continued also to be active and ultimately successful in and Sweyn Estrithsson, King of Denmark (1047-74)- Their rivalry northern politics, using English resources to that end. He was heralded a fitting domestic conclusion to the Viking story in the largely responsible for the defeat and death of Olaf Haroldson (St North and relieved much of the pressure on England. Edward with Olaf) in 1030, and governed Norway through with intermit- the sometimes uncertain but always vigorous help of Godwin, tent success. At the height of his power he could make good the of Harold, son of Godwin, and others of that formidable kin, was boast implicit in his title that he was king of all England, and of able to safeguard his borders, and impose internal peace, even to the t The invasions c.954-c.I100 65

incriminate his own stepmother. Her own son, Ethelred, succeeded his half-brother, to rule for the best part of forty years over a 5 kingdom fated to be disrupted and finally conquered by Scandina- vian armies. The contemporary Chronicler, the principal narrative source for the reign, clearly loathed Ethelred, attributing English The course the disaster to perfidy and incompetence, starting in the royal person of and spreading through the polity. Ethel-rad, the noble counsel, Scandinovian invasions in became Un-rred, the no-counsel! England's collapse was a moral collapse, caused negatively by wavering loyalties and positively in Britain and lreland, church and state by great treachery. c.954-c. I I00 Record of renewed raiding began in 980, and brutal attacks were made widely, against , the Isle of Thanet, Cheshire, and the southwest. London was looted. A major crisis in 991 was resolved by the at which the English were defeated in spite of their heroic resistance. Negotiations led to the payment England for the first time of , the germ of the idea for which was attributed to the archbishop, Sigeric. The English learned the hard The nature of the invasions in this period was complex, partly way the basic lesson that 'once you have paid them the Danegeld because of the existence of already deep rooted Scandinavian settle- you never get rid of the Dane' . ln 994 Olaf Tryggvasson of Norway ments in the , and partly because of interaction among (who had been prominent in the 991 raids) returned, accompanied the various movements and the indigenous peoples. One charac_ by no less a figure than King of Denmark with teristic is outstanding. we deal now much more than in the earlier a huge fleet. They won an immense geld for themselves though period with armies and navies nationally organized with less of an there were gleams of hope. London beat them off, and in the obvious urge for settlement and virtually none of t&e characteristics winter of 994-5 Olaf was converted to Christianity with King of a migration. Wealth, sheer loot, and then political power were Ethelred acting as his sponsor. Olaf promised not to come back in the objectives. Chronologically there were three clearcut sub_ hostility, and kept that promise. But from 997, after a very short periods. The first generation up to 980 was a time of relative peace. lull, attacks were continuous. In vivid prose the Anglon-Saxon The second up to 1016 was a time of Scandinavian initiative and Chronicle painted a dismal picture of useless activity and treachery. ultimate domination. The succeeding period experienced a time of English forces were constantly wrong-footed. Their men or ships extraordinary Danish success followed by recession and then disap- were in the one quarter when the Scandinavians were in the other. pearance of Scandinavian pressure. No part of England was free from ravaging. The Danes were able England demands pride of place in discussion because the max_ in their pride to ride within sight of the walls of Winchester imum Scandinavian efforts in these islands were made successfully unharmed. Graphic accounts were given of tales of treachery on in the English direction. Under King Edgar (959-75) the west Saxon both sides: a massacre of Danes of St Brice's Day, 1002, in which monarchy had finally been transformed into a monarchy of all Sweyn's sister was said to have perished; the martyrdom of Arch- England. church and state were closely knit together. Full recogni- bishop ,€lfheah at Canterbury in 1012. Modern scholars have tion was given to the legal customs of the , but the Danish pointed out that all the blame should not be laid on Ethelred's population settled in England were christian and acknowledged the shoulders, and indeed all was not gloom. In the financial and legal christian king, Edgar, as their overlord. After Edgar's deathin 975 fields solid advance was made. England enjoyed the benefit of a dynastic weakness revealed flaws in the polity. Edward, his elder stable and strictly regulated coinage. The courts of the , son, was murdered at Corfe Castle in circumstances that seemed to hundreds and wapentakes were well organized, and the royal role as 68 The Vikings in Britain The invssions c.954-c.1100 69 point where he paid off a substantial portion of his standing fleet ,6rould surely have been to see the immense fleet prepared by Harold in 1050. viking raids stilr continued. In l05g a major artack tool llardrada moved west over sea to England rather than south against place, led by Magnus, son of Harold Hardrada, but this *", ."..f- Denmark. When William's settlement of England ran into its tional. By and large the raids were no more than minor, spasmodic earliest and greatest crisis, 1069-71, Sweyn judged the time ripe for and local, undertaken from the western Isles, the , 416 intervention but allowed himself to be bought off, so losing the last . serious opportunity of an enduring Anglo-Danish kingdom. One Both of the northern kings retained an interest in the English further effort was made under Cnut, Sweyn's son and successor, in succession, Harold Hardrada possibly from promises said to have 1083, threatening enough to prompt William to recruit heavily in been made to his nephew, , Sweyn more tangibly France, but the murder of the Danish king ended the threat. Contact from his right of blood as nephew of King cnut. Harola, with tris between Denmark and England remained significant economically by-name of 'hard-counsel', had many of the traditional attributes of and socially. Privileges in London and on the eastern seaboard were a viking chief. He was a survivor of the battle of in 1030 granted to Danish merchants. But the Norman duke-kings brought at which his half-brother, St Olaf, had met his death. He had won England securely into the Gallic Romanic orbit. To raid England fortune for himself in the varangian Guard at , ceased to be profitable, and from Denmark as from Norway the and remained a captain of fighting men up to the end at Stamftrd danger of political conquest disappeared. The may have Bridge. His major contribution to Norwegian history, however, is plundered their subjects: they certainly protected them from others. more prosaic. In nearly twenty years of vigorous rule and cam_ In that sense the provided a clear terminal point paigning, mostly against the Danes, he consolidated the politicai to the Viking Age for the English realm. structure of Norway, confirming the permanent conjunction of the fjord with Bergen and . The chance for English adven- ture came in 1065-6, the last year of the confessor's reign and that of his successor, Harold II of England, Harold, son of Godwin. The sheer size of the Norwegian intervention in 1066 is proof The middle of the tenth century marks the end of an important that we deal with something more than a viking raitl. Reinforced by phase in Welsh political history, and the beginning of a new chapter the Earl of and by Harold's disaffected brother, Tostig, in its contacts with the Scandinavians. Wales had weathered the Hardrada's fleet is said to have consisted of some 300 ships, -unn.d first Viking onslaughts exceedingly well. Alone of the principal by at least 9,000 men. After initial success he was defeated at political units of Britain it had avoided yielding tracts of territory Stamford Bridge not far from york, and his defeat was truly over, to Scandinavian adventures. Credit for this must go largely to the whelming: a couple of dozen ships were enough to take the survivors leadership first of Rhodri Mawr (844-78) and then of Hywel Dda back to the North. Harold's son, later known as Olaf Kyrre, the (c.926-50). Rhodri had been killed by the English but his successors, peaceable, was among the survivors. In the following century there especially his grandson, Hywel, worked closely with their fellow- were occasional Norwegian raids, operating for the most part along Christian English against the heathen Danes. There was a positive the western shores from bases in the northern and western isles. The lull in Scandinavian activity in Wales in the second quarter of viking Age, as far as the Norwegians were concerned, ended with the tenth century, possibly associated with indications of Danish the death of Harold Hardrada at Stamford Bridge on 25 September presence in Brittany between 920 and.940. Hywel's death in 950, 1066. however, was followed by a long period of civil dissension and raids English victory at Stamford Bridge was foilowed within three from oversea, mostly by Scandinavian settlers in easy distance from weeks by devastating defeat at the hands of wilriam of Normandy Welsh shores, men from and other Irish ports, men from at Hastings on Saturday, 14 October 1066. There remains the the Isle of Man and the . There was no systematic pur- Danish pose side of things to consider. Sweyn Estrithsson seems in 1066 behind the attacks of the type only too obvious in Ethelred's to have given some diplomatic support to william. His main delieht England, at most perhaps an attempt to set up safe bases for ships '70 The Vikings in Britain Fl The invasions c.954-c.1100 7l in Pembrokeshire and . Loot, especially silver and trea- I reputedly by the Norwegian king himself, and the extreme pre- sures from monasteries of easy access, was the prime aim. St David's I cariousness of the Norman hold on Anglesey made evident. No was sacked no fewer than three times in the last twenty years of I further systematic attempt to conquer Wales west of Conway was the century, and Llandbadarn Fawr, St Dogmaels, Llanilltud and I to be made for many generations. This last intrusion of Scandina- Llancarfan all suffered. The ancient was also I uian power into Welsh affairs, an accidental by-product of royal ravaged, particularly Anglesey, the target for at least three full- I Nor*.gian concern to demonstrate authority in the Scottish Isles scale expeditions directed from the Isle of Man. Welsh princes, I una Man, typifies the contact of Scandinavians with Wales: myste- myopically concerned with their own internecine conflicts, made I rious, incidental, and in the last resort of fringe importance. Con- some use of Scandinavian seamen as mercenaries. Maredudd ab I tu.t with Ireland was quite a different story. Owain (986-99), a powerful ruler in Deheubarth, who had himself I used such mercenaries, was compelled to pay a penny head a to I redeem Welsh prisoners at the height of the Norse attacks. I lreland Wales played little part in the crises that racked England during I the reign of Ethelred, a contrast to its role in the Alfredian period. I fite middle of the tenth century marked an important stage also Sea communications remained strong with lreland, and an out- | in the history of lreland. From 920 to 950 serious attempts had standing feature of the eleventh century was the growth of a I be.n made to create a joint and York. Olaf recognizable political circle in which the old identities of I Sihtricson, better known as Olaf Cuaran, twice established himself Scandinavian and Celt became blurred. Exiles from Ireland found I ur king at York, but in 952 finally gave up his Northumbrian ambi- refuge in Wales, and exiles from Wales found refuge in Ireland. I tions and resumed his kingship in Dublin. For close on thirty years Gruffydd ap Cynan, the ruler of Gwynedd from 1075 (with inter- | tr. ruled the Scandinavian colony there vigorously. He married an ruptions) to his death in 1137, was said to have been born in exile I lrish princess with the result that his sons could draw on loyalties in Dublin in 1054 or 1055 and brought up in the Scandinavian I from both communities. He was converted to Christianity. When, settlement there. Raids continued late into the eleventh century, I in 980, his sons were defeated by the Irish high-king at Tara, Olaf increasingly as incidental irritants. Pressure frem England was the I fled the country, dying a simple Christian pilgrim at . He was dominant political issue, successfully resisted by the north Welsh I succeeded by his son, Gluniarainn, who entered an alliance with the prince of Gwynedd, Gruffydd ap Llewelyn, until he was over- | man who had defeated him, his Irish-kinsman, Mael Sechnaill whelmed by Harold Godwinsson in 1063. A Norwegian fleet, led | (Malactry) even against his fellow Vikings of Waterford who had by Magnus, son of Harold Hardrada, had helped Gruffydd in I temporarily taken over control of Dublin. ln 994 Mael Sechnaill 1058, probably in the course of testing the political temperature in I drove the Waterford Vikings out of Dublin, and another of Olaf England. The Norman Conquest of England intensified pressure I Cuaran's son Sihtric of the Silken Beard, succeeded to the kingship. from the new Norman of Hereford (to 1076), Shrewsbury, I His fortunes became bound up with the career of one of the giant and Chester. The end of the true Viking intervention in Wales ; fi8uresof earlylrishhistory, BrianBoru. Born ing4l,Briangained came towards the end of the century in relation to the ambition I hismilitaryreputationincampaignsagainsttheVikingsof Limerick, of these earls. Hugh Lupus, earl of Chester, accompanied by 1 and by 984 was overlord of most southern Ireland in an increasingly Hugh Montgomery, earl of Shrewsbury, made a decisive effort to I uneasy relationship with the high-king Mael Sechnaill whose power master north Wales in 1098. The native Welsh princes withdrew to I centre lay to the north. Complicated alliances among petty princes Anglesey, relying on a fleet of Scandinavian-Irish mercenaries for I destroyed what balance existed and in 999, after a ferocious battle support. The mercenaries proved treacherous, and Gruffydd ap 1 Brian captured Dublin. Sihtric came to terms, and so did Mael Cynan fled Sechnaill to Ireland. Anglesey was ravaged by the Normans, I who, in l00l-2 yielded his high-kingship to Brian. In 1005 and the conquest seemed complete, when a Norwegian fleet, I utArmaghinthenorthBrianwasbeingstyled imperatorScottorum, commanded by , king of Norway, appeared off I emperor of the Irish. Priestholm. In the ensuing battle the earl of Shrewsbury was killed, The decade or so of Brian's high-kingship created legends I of unity I

I I A.I The invssions c'954-c'1100 73 Vikings in Britain '72 The the coast of the tip of south-west around the Irish rulers erupted from as the ' the the reality. Dissensions among :-+n rhe Irish Sea, islands that we know sreater then of the in in one of t!1T?tt famous battles 'j};";, itt.'H-#ia.', s"attYs' an! Man - or sometimes ffi;;;;;, 1014' rhe and the Sudrevs' "tr-i""'i*cr"iiii on cooo Fridav' 23 ;"t more archaic't'" fashion as the Nordrevs ;:,.t".,^i;;;ni-"i and the Vikings' il;l; Norwegians'-They u between the Irish r,{onw of these islands were early settled by battle was .ro, the lYrsrrJ - and "'u'rttiltt"t enhsted help. along the whole of the main Viking routes' subject to raids Sihtric of the Silken s?"ti ;"a remained on one ot of his fortified market at Dublin' '5!1ffi;;,;oraaicattv ttrroughout the viking Age' Thev were also western Viking *o'fO in-*pport and even Normandy; but posti for many enterprises further-.south' from to Ortt"ey'-ttt" Itft of vastly important staglng YT supported . raiding fleets from Scandinavia' detachment iio- tt. Isle of Man intermediary ioint rot a strong it a clear ;;f"t arduous sea anJ pagans on both sides' Nor was places to refit and to recover from the There were Christians lonu.ni.nt 1066 forces represented by Brian, and the Nidarot, ittt western fjords' or the Vik' In conflict between centralizing passage from of the potiticat matter seems to have part in the events that led up to the battles forces of localism. d;;;"; of Orkney played a big part of the men of Leinster and it was to Orkney that the assertion of strength on the Fulford Gate and Stamford Bridge' been an of secondary pitiful remnant of the withtt'" No""t-tn active but essentially prince olaf Haroldsson biought the against Brian grandson ;;;;; Bridge' fi,. *u' chaotic' Brian' his son' and his 's.""ii"""i"n host after the defeat at Stamford importance. On the Viking side' prosperous of the settlements - all killed in""'it tn" Uuttft or its aftermath' The most important and most were twenty ships the settlement in Orkney' Brodir' yT brought the possible .t.tptio" of Man- - was Sigurd, earl of o,t""v,l"J l"d held to with which pro- perished' Brian in legend was of Ragnald, jarl of More in west€rn Norwav' from the Isle of M";,';;; il;f.*tlt Orkney but it is hard to say from what' wittrits ducal house' was also prominent in have saved Ireland Ut ftit vided Normandy "ittoty' ttigtt-tingthip' The Scandinavian Sigurd the Great' had acted more or less None of the Vikings itpf*Ji" tti' affairs. Ragnald's brother, Irish to be eradicated' but ftua won control of extensive terri- *",.'ool'iti"t to tttt nutint as Harold Fairhair's u"a settlements complete political ' and even into strong enough to-hope to achieve north Scotlani in Cuitttttess' they were not Clontarf i"o l" youngest son' itt" Ji"tui" turbulence that followed and south of the Moray Firth' Ragnald's mastery. In ttre evenJ, norr-rttir. his uncle *o"ts towards unity' and the Scandina- did not .njov tttt same extensive authority as led to a weakening Turf-Einar, to "iittt more confined' Mael Sechnaill part legendary accounts attributed vian settlements persisted though Sigurd, but later poet; and king' Scandinavian kings con- for iniroducing the skills of the peat-burner was once ugui,""togtized as high him not only the credit surviving into the l03os)'and a forietting up the earl's authority tinued at Dublin tii-nitit rti*self to the islanders but ut'o ttt"t"ait remained' known in time as basis' He was reputed to have paid heavily Scandinaviani'eJ population and power on u trade of the western seaboard ^or.l.rritorialof the islanders (60 marks of gold) to the Ostmen, to play t"ft^in the a substantial flne on Lettalf " "ii"i Wexford' Cork' and surrender on the part of the free from Dublin itserf ana- i'orn Waterford' Norwegian king in t;t*" for the the flight of the Scandina- to him' The story has the smack of the Limerick. In 1052 u.iiiiurv defeat led_to farmers of their ooai dynasty returned in the early 'igtrts feudal world to it' but there may vian king from luffi Uut titt old Iater twelfth- or thirteerith-century Scandinavian prin- of Ragnald was trying to Not until the 1160s were the be some truth in the idea that the family twelfth century. process that finally ,.-*tJ ut part of the complicated consolidateitspositioninorkneyduringtheearlypartofthetenth celings tenth century saw no dramatic the Anglo-Normans into Ireland' century. The middle'Vtutt of the Uiou'gttt Scandinavian affairs watershed in events of the type we have seen in single dominant thread elsewhere in Britain. As far^as there is one fortunes of the house of the ' the Western to the political the Scotland, ""tv-it ""tcerns.its quarrels with other powers Isles. and Man nugnad, its marriaie alliances' (including fellow-Viliings as the dynasty of Limerick^Vikings directly affected by the Scandina- 'ucttrelationship - which generally followed No part of Great Britain was more established in fvfanl anJits of isrands that stretches vian invasions tnan tle etauorate complex The invusions c.954-c.I100 75 '14 The Vikings in Britain in the Northern Isles at where he was given Christian virtual independence - with see the theme of nominal dependence and at his death in 1064. He was strong enough and confident brought back into the Orkney lurial the Norwegian crown. was to journey abroad and record has survived of a visit to by one of Turf-Einar's sons and Inougt, orbit by a marriage agreement made as well as of visits to Denmark and to German imperial Further dynastic marriages with Irish Rorn., ;^;;il;, or tne mainland. He recognised the overlordship of Hardrada, king of Norway, andsecurity in the Western Lsles' Lnds. chieftains brought extra influence enloying almost unfettered rule of Shetland, orkney and the Stout' brought fresh while The son of one of these marriages, Sigurd the governed the Sudreys and (after 1034) reasserted beginning Hebridei. He also dynasty at the Lnd of the tenth and the relationship with frestige to the itre rigtrts of the Orkney earls over Man. His In 995 Sigurd suffered a conversion to of the eleventh ."ntniy' if,. S*,rirh kings was predictably complex. At the height of his -hristianity dramatic if not as deep and long-lasting as sudden and nower Thorfinn was said to have held no fewer than nine Scottish We are told that the stormy' newly con- ;;;;y in recorded history' lartaomt, including Ross, a part of Moray, and ' It is hard across him suddenly and by chance verted Olaf Tryggvassorcame know how much to make of this. He was certainly effective in the (Kirk Hope) and gave him the straight to in the bay of Osmondwall northern mainland and also in Galloway where he liked to reside and or conversion' The dramatic nature choice of death and destruction which he liked to use as a base for ventures in the Southern Isles and the Orkneyinga , must not obscure of this account, taken from Man. Towards the end of his life the formidable new scottish king, the Northern Isles were Christians long the fact that many men in Malcolm canmore, Malcolm III (1058-93), asserted his rights over conversion' built up a powerful hold on before 995. Sigurd accepted most of mainland Scotland. Thorfinn's achievements were beyond placed a subordinate earl in charge Caithness and the Southern Isles, question great, but it would be utterly wrong to consider him wife a daughter of Malcolm II of Man, and married as his second as a builder of a permanent empire of the Isles and of Man' His linchpin of the Viking federation oi Scotlana (1005-34)' He was the authority depended much on his personal vigour and on his personal Dublin Vikings in 1014 and his hastily summoned to the aid of the presence. His father sigurd is said to have granted back odal rights Clontarf was as momentous in death at the resulting battle of to the Orkney landowners and whatever truth there may or may not Brian Boru himself' He was suc- Northern history as the death of be in that precise statement lt is beyond question that the basic socia- known as'the Nfg!tY': the most .".a.4 by his son, Thorfinn later composition on most of the islands consisted of hardy independent Thorfinn's inheritance was colourfui of the Orkney earls (1014-64)' fishermen-farmers, only too ready to turn to Viking enterprise if years his active political life up to turbulent. For the firsitwenty-vialcolm of the leadership were good and the prospects for profit reasonable. Scotland' he was engaged the death of his granJiattrer, of Thorfinn's basic achievement was to sharpen for these men their and power-sharing in the in family feuding with his half-brothers sense of awareness of common kinship with the Norwegian home- of Olaf Haraldsson' St islands (under the watchful eye in the land, not to mould them into a permanent independent polity' By was followed by an unsuccessful Olaf of Norway). fufui"of-'t ieath the time of his death or very soon after the Isle of Man passed under I (1034-40) to recover attempt on the part of his successor' Duncan the control of vikings from Dublin. Godfred Sihtricson, one of the temporarily confirmed in Caithness, un u,r.rnp, which left Thorfinn survivors from Stamford Bridge, is described as a king of Man' He Norwegian interference ttre leadership of all the Northern vikings. took back with him from Stamford Bridge Godred Crovan, a man power-sharing in at the time of Magnus Olafsson forced further whose father was an Icelander, and Godfred after a chequered son of Thorfinn's half- the Orkneys, this time with Ragnald' the career in Norway itself won a kingship in Man for himself (1079- well until the mid-1040s brother, Brusi. The aitu"gt*tnlt worked 95), transmitting rights to his descendants notably to his son Olaf with the slaying of when a violent quarrel sprang up that ended who governed Man from ll13 to 1153. Orkney itself tended to be homestead at Cirist- Ragnald as he flid from his Utu'ing Orkney divided and subdivided amongst the numerous heirs of Thorfinn reign of Edward the Confessor mastide. For the greater part of the after 1064 - a ready and natural fate for any island polity - until the in Norwav (1041-66) in England (1042-6;t;;ior nutorO Hardrada Norwegian king Magnus Barefoot intervened in person towards the and western seaways Thorfinn consolidated his hold on the northern end of the eleventh century. we have already seen the disastrous first regular bishop's of Britain. He was a Christian and founded the 76 The Vikings in Britain impact of his activities on welsh affairs in 1098. In the orkneys hg removed the quarrelsome earls and put his own son Sigurd in com- mand. Further south he saw to it - probably the main object of his 6 expedition - that the Sudreys and Man paid their tribute to their rigntrut king, the ruler of Norway. After Sigurd himself became the permitted N-orwegian king in 1103, the grandsons of Thorfinn were The efficts of the to resume earlish office in the North. Northern Island history remained turbulent and fluctuating throughout the twelfth and most Scandinavion invasions on of the thirteenth century' but we now move out of the true Viking Age.ManandtheWesternlslesremainedundernominaland Britoin: the problem of aitimes effective Norwegian overlordship until 1266, when after settlement a series of Scottish victories the young king Magnus ceded to Alexander II of Scotland the Iordship of the Isle of Man and of all the Sudreys in return for a payment of 4,000 marks (at the rate of 1.000 maiks a year) and of 100 marks a year thereafter. Orkney and Shetland were under Scandinavian sovereignty for a further two point general centuries. The earls became Scottish, and Norway itself became a To this we have been concerned mainly with the joint kingdom of Denmark - Norway, ruled by a Danish dynasty' political impact of the Scandinavian invasions on Britain. The time paid The 100 marks a year payment, agreed on in 1266, was only has now come to attempt a deeper evaluation of the effects. Some intermittently,andinthel460sthefinalattemptataSolutionto of these effects are beyond the province of the historian, given our the problem of the islands was in fact made' In 1468 a marriage present limitations of admissible evidence. The sheer addition in contract was arranged between King James III of Scotland and genetic terms of Scandinavian blood into the human stock peopling Margaret, a Danish princess, the daughter of King Christian I' The these islands must have been considerable. Intermarriage was never place ugr..*.nt was drawn up formally on 8 Septemberl"Christian remit- discouraged and a recognized was found in Scandinavian legal systems sexual unions fell well recognizable teO tire annual payment of 100 marks, forgave all the accumulated for that short of Christian groups arrears, and granted 60,000 Rhenish florins as his daughter's dowry, marriage. Study of blood and methods of evalua- tion 10,000 to be paid in cash and the other 50,000 promised with the of nigrescence are imperfect disciplines and with each genera- tion passes orkneys held in pledge until the debt was redeemed. christian could that hope of establishing regional variations that will help not find even the 10,000 initial payment, and so on 28 May 1469' to trace direct Scandinavian influence from the time of the pro- migration grows he pledged Shetland on the same conditions for 8,000 of the dimmer and dimmer. And yet historians are right still mised florins. The islands were pawned not ceded' but political to think in these human terms. Over large tracts of the British perma- Isles circumstances ensured that the arrangements should become the Scandinavians formed an important recognizable element it in nent. Shetland came in almost fortuitously: earlier efforts to link the human population. The was fully aware of this, with the Faroes had not proved successful. On the same day that he and treated the matter as a commonplace. When Giraldus pawned Shetland King christian I wrote to the inhabitants of Cambrensis wished to explain the origins of the peculiar style of part-singing Orkney and Shetland, instructing them to do homage to the Scottish characteristic of Wales and of the lands beyond the Humber king and to pay their taxes to him until the islands were redeemed. and on the borders of , he attributed it directly to More than half a millennium later they are still doing so: an odd the Danes and Norwegians by whom those parts of the island were quirk of an end to a brave story of colonization and settlement frorn frequently ruled. It is a pleasant thought that to one shrewd medieval the Viking Age. observer characteristics common to the ancestors of the Treorchv Male Voice Choir and the choral societies of Leeds and