Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Scandinavian Britain - III. The Norse Settlements - 6. The Earldom of Orkney
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Jarl Harald Maddadh’s son, having got rid of rivals,
spent the rest of his long reign in making enemies.
By his second marriage with Gormflaith, daughter of
Malcolm MacEth (the adventurer Vémund, once a
monk of Furness), he became enemy of King William
the Lion, and lost a great part of Caithness ; by his
partisanship in Norse affairs he became enemy of
King Sverrir and lost Shetland ; and by the outrage
upon bishop John, who was blinded at Scarabolstad
(Scrabster in Caithness), he made the Church his
enemy. He died in 1206, aged 73. Shetland remained
the immediate property of the Norse crown
until it was granted to St. Clair in 1379. The outrage
upon one bishop led to the extortions and the murder
of the next, bishop Adam ; and jarl Harald’s surviving
son, John, was killed in 1231, ending the Norse
line which had ruled Orkney for 350 years.
In 1232 king Alexander II. of Scotland granted
Northern Caithness to Magnus, son of Gilbride, earl
of Angus, and perhaps of a daughter of Harald, son of
Maddadh. The king of Norway granted Magnus the
jarldom of Orkney also ; and thus a portion of the
old realm was placed under a ruler of Norse name
and probably Norse descent, but governing the two
parts of his country under two different kingdoms.
His grandson Magnus accompanied King Hákon
Hákonarson to the battle of Largs in 1263. John,
the grandson of this Magnus, was one of those who
signed the petition that the son of Edward I. should
marry Margaret the Maid of Norway, who died (1290)
on her way to England, at Margaret’s Hope (hóp).
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