Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Scandinavian Britain - III. The Norse Settlements - 6. The Earldom of Orkney
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
that object. Though the Register of the Privy Council
of Scotland does not record, for instance, an embassy
for this purpose in 1585, the Calendar of English State
Papers and various Scottish memoirs refer to it. In
1589 Jarnes VI. married the princess Anne of Denmark,
and the matter was deferred during the minority
of Christian IV. When he came of age James prevailed
on him to allow it to stand over during their
reigns. In 1640 payment was again tendered, but the
troubles of the time hindered settlement. In 1660
Charles II. was approached, but managed to evade a
settlement, and at the treaty of Breda (1667) the
question was still left open. In the middle of the
eighteenth century Frederick V. once more demanded
the restitution of the islands, but in vain. Mr. Goudie,
writing before the foundation of the modern Norwegian
kingdom, thought that Denmark rather than
Norway would have the right still to redeem, because
when the two countries were disjoined in 1814 Denmark
retained all the islands of the North Sea, which
would include the reversion of Orkney and Shetland.
The question as it now stands is purely academical,
but it was not so in the first centuries after the impignoration.
The people of Orkney and Shetland
were still Norse, and looked to Norway as their mother-country.
In Mr. Goudie’s words : "They continued
to advocate causes, not to the courts of law in Scotland,
but to the courts with which they were more
familiar in Norway ; and the native system of law and
justice, of tidal succession and udal tenure in land,
survived in some measure, though determined efforts
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
