The Kingdom of Man and the Earldom of Orkney— Some Comparisons
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THE KINGDOM OF MAN AND THE EARLDOM OF ORKney— SOME COMPARISONS Barbara E. Crawford The Kingdom of Man and the Earldom of Orkney are the only two medi- eval thalassocracies (lordships established with a maritime power base) in the British Isles. They are also the political heirs of Viking settlement in Scotland as well as being unique phenomena of the Norse colonial world. But they are rarely, if ever, compared and contrasted.1 The kingdom and earldom were rather different in terms of their maritime geography. Located in the northern part of the Irish Sea, Man was detached from the Hebridean islands which constituted the major maritime part of the kingdom of the Isles: this can never have been the basis for a simple political situation, particularly after the mid-twelfth century when the southern Hebrides came under the control of the sons of Somerled.2 The Orkneys were a much more accessible collection of islands to control and administer, and although Shetland and Caithness were detached portions of the earl’s empire, both separated from Orkney by particularly turbulent stretches of water, nonetheless this situation must have presented few problems from the point of view of a maritime dynasty’s controlling capabilities. Nor were the Northern Isles so vulner- able to attack or domination by neighbouring powers, which was the situ- ation presented by Man’s position in the Irish Sea, surrounded as it is by Irish, Scottish, Galwegian, Welsh and English coastal territories. However, in one significant respect Man was better protected than the Orkneys, being remoter from the exercise of authority by its overlords, the kings of Norway. It was significantly further away than the Northern Isles, which were never beyond the reach of the king of Norway’s officials. The dif- ference is exemplified in the manner in which the kings attempted to exercise control, as will be discussed later. 1 Some of the following discussion is drawn from my contribution to A New History of the Isle of Man, vol. 3 (“Man in the Norse World” chap. 10), written about ten years ago and still (at the time of writing this) unpublished. 2 R. Andrew McDonald, The Kingdom of the Isles. Scotland’s Western Seaboard c. 1100– c. 1336 (Scottish Historical Review Monograph Series no. 4, 1997), ch. 3. 66 barbara e. crawford These geographical differences underlie the reasons why there have been very few attempts to compare the two insular groups. They had separate historical development in the post-Viking Age and historians of Orkney and Man have very rarely had any specific reason to look to the history of the other dynasty. For a period of time in the late tenth century and again in the first half of the eleventh, the Hebrides came under the sway of the earls of Orkney, (according to the descriptions of battles in the west won by Earls Sigurd II Hlodversson digri (‘the Stout’) and Thorfinn Sigurdsson hinn ríki (‘the Mighty’).3 There are many references in the Orkneyinga Saga to several of the earls raiding in the west or looking to the west to supply them with support.4 This was their main area of expansion and source of booty, with their sights set to access some of the wealth of the kingdom of Dublin, if the opportunity presented itself. There are no recorded occa- sions in this period when, conversely, the kings of Man looked north to Orkney for raiding potential.5 In the tenth and eleventh centuries oppor- tunities for gain probably kept the kings of Man occupied within the Irish Sea zone, and, as has been shown, the island was brought within the sphere of Dublin’s rulers in the mid-eleventh century.6 In the twelfth cen- tury family relationships were established between the dynasties of Man and Orkney when Ingebjorg, daughter of Earl Hakon Paulsson of Orkney was married to—or had a liaison with—King Olaf Gudrodson (according to the Orkneyinga Saga, chap.110, although the ‘Chronicle of Man’ does not refer to her).7 This family connection may explain why Earl Harald Maddadson (Ingebjorg’s nephew) sought support and re-inforcements in Man during his struggle with a rival to the earldoms, Harald Ungi, 3 See discussion of the situation at the end of the tenth century by ColmánE tchingham, “North Wales, Ireland and the Isles: the Insular Viking Zone” Peritia 14 (2001): 145–87. 4 Barbara E. Crawford, Scandinavian Scotland, Studies in the Early History of Britain (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1987), 68 and 74. 5 Later in the Middle Ages such raids are recorded (Records of the Earldom of Orkney, ed. J. S. Clouston, SHS, second series 7, 1914, no. xxiii, s. a. 1461) when “caterans and men of Sodor and Ireland” raided and devastated the fertile lands of Orkney. 6 S. Duffy, “Irishmen and Islesmen in the kingdoms of Dublin and Man, 1052–1171”, Eriu 43 (1992). 7 There has been some confusion over Ingebjorg’s marriage, due to Palsson and Edward’s mistranslation of the Old Norse text (see R. Andrew McDonald, Manx kingship in its Irish Sea Setting, 1187–1229 (Dublin: Four Courts Press), 2007, 72). David Sellar sug- gests it is more likely that she was the mother of one of Olaf ’s daughters, Ragnhild, who married Somerled (see Table 1 in W. D. H. Sellar, “Hebridean Sea Kings: the Successors of Somerled. 1164–1316”, in Alba. Celtic Scotland in the Medieval Era, eds. E. J. Cowan and R. Andrew McDonald (East Lothian: Leicester University Press, 2000)..