Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Abt 1079, Isle of Man, England; Konge av Man og Hebridene.

Notes:

Occupation:
Konge av Sudreys.

Kjempet sammen med sin svigerfar Harald Hardråde mot Harald Godwinson i slaget ved Stamford Brigde 1066. Svigerfar Harald falt i slaget, og Gudrød Crovan reiste til Isle of Man og bodde hos en slektning. Senere erobret han øya og tok makten der.

Family/Spouse: Ragnhild Haraldsdatter. Ragnhild (daughter of Harald Sigurdsen av Norge, "Harald 3" and Ellisiv Jaroslavsdatter av Kiev) was born about 1047; died after 1080 in Isle of Man, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: 1103, Isle of Man, England; Konge Isle of Man & the Isles 1103-1153.

Notes:

Occupation:
Olaf 1 Bitling the Red was the last born child of Godred Crovan (Orry). To be the youngest is not necessarily to be a dwarf.

Óláfr Guðrøðarson (died 29 June 1153) was a twelfth-century King of the Isles. As a younger son of Guðrøðr Crovan, King of Dublin and the Isles, Óláfr witnessed a vicious power struggle between his elder brothers in the aftermath of their father's death.
At some point, the young Óláfr was entrusted to the care of Henry 1, King of England, and like the contemporaneous Scottish monarchs, Alexander 1 and David 1, Óláfr appears to have been a protégé of the English king.

As King of the Isles, Óláfr contracted marital alliances with neighbouring maritime rulers. Although he appears to have overseen successful military operations to reclaim the northern-most territories once controlled by his father, he may have witnessed the loss of authority in Galloway as well. Like his counterpart David 1, Óláfr was a reformer and moderniser of his realm. However, his four-decade reign ended in abrupt disaster when he was assassinated by 3 nephews in 1153. Following the ensuing power struggle, Óláfr's son Guðrøðr overcame the kin-slayers, and assumed the kingship of the Kingdom of the Isles.

The Isles—an archipelagic region roughly incorporating the Hebrides and Mann—was ruled by Guðrøðr Crovan for over 2 decades until his death in 1095, whereupon his eldest son Logmaðr assumed control. Warring soon broke out between factions supporting Logmaðr's younger brother Haraldr, which led to the intervention and encroachment of Irish power into the region. After a short period of Irish domination, the region lapsed into further conflict which was capitalised on by Magnús Óláfsson, King of Norway, who led two military campaigns throughout the Isles and surrounding Irish Sea region at about the turn of the twelfth century. Magnús dominated these regions until his death in 1103, whereupon control of the Isles appears to have fragmented into chaos once again.

Rather than allow ambitious Irish powers fill the power vacuum, Henry 1 appears to have installed Óláfr on the throne at some point between 1112 and 1115, about the time that Domnall mac Taidc relocated from the Isles to Ireland. Óláfr is recorded to have spent his youth at Henry 1's court, and Óláfr's later religious foundations reveal that he was greatly influenced by his English upbringing. In the second quarter of the eleventh century, Óláfr founded the abbey of St Mary of Rushen, a reformed religious house on Mann. He further oversaw the formation of the Diocese of the Isles, the territorial extent of which appears to reveal the boundaries of his realm. Óláfr is recorded to have had at least two wives: Ingibjørg, daughter of Hákon Pálsson, Earl of Orkney; and Affraic, daughter of Fergus, Lord of Galloway. The unions seem to reveal that Óláfr shifted from an alliance with Orkney to that with Galloway. Not long after his marriage to Affraic, one of Óláfr's daughters married Somairle mac Gilla Brigte, Lord of Argyll, an emerging power in the region.

Although Óláfr's reign is recorded to have been peaceful, there is reason to suspect that his own succession was uncertain.
In 1152, Guðrøðr travelled to Norway and rendered homage to Ingi Haraldsson, King of Norway. At about this time, the Diocese of the Isles was incorporated within the recently elevated Archdiocese of Niðaróss. Whilst this strengthened Norwegian links with the Isles, it secured the ecclesiastical independence of Óláfr's domain, and safeguard his secular authority in the region. Nevertheless before Guðrøðr returned to the Isles, three sons of Haraldr confronted Óláfr, and demanded a share of the kingdom before slaying him. Although the three men appear to have taken significant steps to counter military intervention from Galloway, they were soon after crushed by Guðrøðr, who returned to the region enstrengthened by Norwegian military might. Óláfr's descendants went on to reign as kings of the Isles for over a century.

Óláfr was a member of the Crovan dynasty, and 1 of 3 sons of this family's eponymous ancestor, Guðrøðr Crovan, King of Dublin and the Isles (died 1095). The latter appears to have secured the kingship of the Isles in the late 1070s, and to have seized the kingship of Dublin in the early 1090s. Guðrøðr Crovan's downfall came in 1094 when he was forced from Ireland altogether by Muirchertach Ua Briain, King of Munster (died 1119). There is reason to suspect that Guðrøðr Crovan was driven from Mann as well, since he is recorded to have died on Islay the following year.

According to the thirteenth–fourteenth-century Chronicle of Mann, Guðrøðr Crovan's eldest son, Logmaðr, succeeded to the kingship of the Isles. The chronicle further reveals that Logmaðr faced opposition from within his own family in the form of a rebellion by his brother, Haraldr. Logmaðr eventually overcame Haraldr, however, and is stated to have had him blinded and emasculated. Afterwards, Logmaðr appears to have faced further opposition in the form of a faction supporting his youngest brother, Óláfr. Apparently unable to overthrow Logmaðr on their own, the dissidents turned to Muirchertach, whose recent conquest of Dublin gave him control of that realm's dominating naval forces.

If the chronicle is to be believed, Óláfr's supporters petitioned Muirchertach to provide a regent from his own kin—the Uí Briain—to govern the Isles until Óláfr was old enough to assume control himself. Such a clause may well have been a condition of Muirchertach's involvement, rather than a request. Nevertheless, the chronicle indicates that Muirchertach installed his nephew, Domnall mac Taidc (died 1115), upon the throne. Although Domnall had previously opposed Muirchertach over the kingship of Munster, he was the son of Muirchertach's brother, and further possessed strong familial connections with the Isles through his maternal descent from Echmarcach mac Ragnaill, King of Dublin and the Isles (died 1064/1065). Regardless, the death of Domnall's brother, Amlaíb, recorded by the seventeenth-century Annals of the Four Masters in 1096, suggests that Domnall and the rest of the Meic Taidc faced significant opposition in the Isles, possibly in the form of Logmaðr's adherents. Domnall's reign appears to have been brief. The chronicle's account of warfare on the island in about 1097–1098 fails to mention him at all, a fact which seems to be evidence that he had lost control by then.

Probably late in 1097, Magnús Óláfsson, King of Norway (died 1103) turned his attention towards the Isles, and sent a certain Ingimundr into the region to take control on his behalf. Unfortunately for Magnús, Ingimundr was soon after slain on Lewis and Harris by leading Islesmen. The following year Magnús took matters into his own hands, and led an invasion-fleet of his into the area. As the invaders successfully carved their way through the Isles towards Mann, Logmaðr was evidently overcome and captured. From Mann, the Norwegians campaigned against the English in Anglesey. Although Magnúss saga berfœtts, within the thirteenth century Heimskringla, places this particular episode in the context of Norwegian conquest, it is likely that Magnús had merely assumed the same protector role that Óláfr's father had once filled with Gruffudd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd (died 1137). Magnús gained the submission of Galloway, and may have consolidated his campaign through a treaty with Edgar, King of Scotland (died 1107).

Magnús overwintered in the Isles, and left for Norway in the summer. He made his return to the region, nearly four years later, in 1102 or 1103. After reestablishing himself on Mann, Magnús entered into an marital alliance with Muirchertach formalised through the marriage between Magnús's young son, Sigurðr (died 1130), and Muirchertach's young daughter, Bjaðmunjo (fl. 1102/1103). The fact that Magnús intended to return to Norway reveals that Muirchertach benefited to most from the arrangement, although the alliance appears to have bound the kings against a common enemy in the region, Domnall Mac Lochlainn, King of Cenél nEógain (died 1121). Unfortunately for Muirchertach, and his long-term ambitions in the Isles, Magnús was slain in Ulster in 1103, and Sigurðr immediately repudiated his bride and returned to Norway. Although Muirchertach was able to regain control of Dublin and still had held considerable influence in the Isles, Magnús' death left a vacuum which neither Muirchertach nor Domnall Mac Lochlainn could fill.

If the Chronicle of Mann is to be believed, at one point in his career Logmaðr repented the cruelty that he had inflicted upon Haraldr, and remorsefully resigned his kingdom before setting off to Jerusalem where he died. The particular terminology employed by the chronicle—that Logmaðr departed the kingdom - marked with the sign of the Lord's cross — suggests that he participated in a crusade. On the other hand, since the chronicle was compiled in the thirteenth century, during a period when the idea of a cross-bearing pilgrim was well established, it is possible that this depiction of L?gmaðr has been contaminated by anachronistic conceptions.

If Logmaðr was indeed a crusader, it is uncertain which particular crusade he undertook. One possibility is that he took part in the First Crusade, a movement that reached its climax with the successful siege and capture of Jerusalem in mid 1099. Logmaðr could have embarked upon this enterprise in about 1096, the year the pope's calls reached England. Alternately, in light of Logmaðr's capture by the Norwegians in 1098, it is conceivable that his release from custody was made conditional upon his exile and participation in the First Crusade. On the other hand, it is not impossible that Logmaðr originally undertook a pilgrimage before catching wind of the crusade en route.

Another possibility is that Logmaðr regained some form of control in the Isles following Magnús' death, and afterwards joined Sigurðr's expedition to Holy Land in the first decade of the twelfth century. The precise chronology of this enterprise is uncertain, although the Norwegian fleet certainly reached England before the end of the first decade of the twelfth century. It may have been at this point, whilst Sigurðr overwintered at the English royal court, that Logmaðr joined up with him. If Logmaðr and Sigurðr indeed rendezvoused in England, this may have been the time when Óláfr was entrusted to the safekeeping of the English king. Certainly, the chronicle reveals that Óláfr was brought up at the English court. The reason why he was entrusted into the care of the English may have been because Henry 1 was thought to have been the only monarch who could guarantee Óláfr's safety.

A probable tenth-century ancestor of Óláfr was the Uí Ímair dynast Óláfr kváran, King of Northumbria and Dublin (died 980/981), This man was likely the prototype of the mediaeval literary character variously known as Havelok the Dane. The earliest surviving source detailing Havelok is the twelfth-century Estoire des Engleis. The catalyst for Óláfr kváran's incorporation into twelfth-century English literature may have been Óláfr's stay at the court of Henry 1. Conceivably, writers may have sought out the patronage of the young Óláfr by borrowing tales of his famous like-named forebear.

According to the twelfth-century Historia regum, Alexander 1, King of Scotland (died 1124) struggled to maintain control of his kingdom. One region which may have caused the Scots some concern was the Isles. In 1111, Domnall mac Taidc seized the kingship of the region, possibly with the aid of Muirchertach's northern opponent, Domnall Mac Lochlainn. This encroachment of competing Irish factions into the Isles may well have been as unpalatable to the English and Scots as the power vacuum left in the wake of Magnús' demise. The chronicle accords Óláfr a reign spanning forty years. His accession to the kingship of the Isles, therefore, appears to date to about 1112, 1113, 1114, or 1115. As such, Óláfr's accession dates to about the time of Muirchertach's faltering authority in 1114. Domnall may have been driven out of the Isles by force, or he could have been drawn back to Ireland in an attempt to capitalise upon his uncle's failing health and fleeting authority.

Óláfr's return to the Isles from England appears to have been the work of Henry 1, who would have likely welcomed a steadfast dependent in control a region of strategic importance. Although the English and Scottish kings were certainly at odds over Cumbria at about this time, it is likely that they would have cooperated to combat the extension of Uí Briain and Meic Lochlainn influence in the Isles. In fact, the Scottish king's participation in the 1114 English expedition against Gruffudd—a man who seems to have been an associate of Muirchertach—may have been undertaken in this context. Furthermore, Muirchertach was closely associated with the Bellême-Montgomery family that had risen in a failed revolt against the English Crown in the first decade of the century. According to the twelfth-century Gesta regum Anglorum, the English imposed a trade embargo against Muirchertach at some point during the reign of Henry 1. Whilst it is possible that this action was a consequence of Muirchertach's familial relationship with his son-in-law Arnulf de Montgomery (died 1118-1122) — and Muirchertach's possible part in the Bellême-Montgomery insurrection—another possibility is that the sanctions concerned Muirchertach's ambitions in the Irish Sea region, especially since Óláfr had been entrusted into Henry 1's care. By establishing Óláfr in the Isles, Henry 1 may have sought to mitigate the extension of Irish influence in the Isles, and escalate the expansion of English authority into the Irish Sea region.

According to the Chronicle of Mann, Óláfr married Affraic, daughter of Fergus, Lord of Galloway (died 1161). Although the union is not dated by contemporary sources, it appears to have been arranged in the 1130s or 1140s. Affraic is specifically identified as the mother of Guðrøðr by the chronicle. The fact that he is recorded to have travelled to Norway on a diplomatic mission in 1152 suggests that he was an adult by this date, and may indicate that Óláfr and Affraic's union commenced in the 1130s. Several contemporary sources concerning Fergus' descendants suggest that he had married an illegitimate daughter of Henry 1 in about the 1120s, and that this woman was the mother of at least some of Fergus' offspring, including Affraic herself. In fact, the shared kinship between Guðrøðr and Henry 1's succeeding grandson, Henry 2, King of England (died 1189), is noted by the twelfth-century Chronica of Robert de Torigni, Abbot of Mont Saint-Michel (died 1186). The marital alliance forged between Óláfr and Fergus gave the Crovan dynasty valuable familial-connections with the English king, one of the most powerful rulers in western Europe. Fergus profited from the marriage pact as well, since it bound Galloway more tightly to the Isles, a neighbouring realm from which Galloway had been invaded during the time of Magnús' overlordship. The union also ensured Fergus the protection of one of Britain's most formidable fleets, and gave him a valuable ally then outwith the orbit of the Scottish king.

Óláfr's dealings with the abbey of St Mary of Furness—a religious house founded by the Lord of Lancaster, Stephen of Blois (died 1154) — could be evidence that Óláfr and Stephen enjoyed amiable relations in the first third of the twelfth century, and may indicate that Óláfr supported Stephen as King of England after 1135. At about this time, David 1 appears to have consolidated his overlordship of Argyll, a region located on the western periphery of the Scottish realm. By about 1140, not only had Óláfr and Fergus bound themselves together, but Somairle mac Gilla Brigte, Lord of Argyll (died 1164) married one of Óláfr's illegitimate daughters. Although the name of this woman is not recorded by the Chronicle of Mann, she is identified as Ragnhildr by the thirteenth-century Orkneyinga saga. The marital binding of Óláfr with 2 of David 1's dependants — Fergus and Somairle — roughly coincided with the Scottish king's endeavour to establish control of Cumbria in the 1130s and 1140s. During this period, David's authority extended southwards along the Cumbrian coast through Copeland, Furness, into Stephen's former honour of Lancaster, thereby making him a principal power in the northern Irish Sea region. The martial alliances concerning Óláfr, therefore, may have formed part of a Scottish strategy to not only isolate him from an English alliance, but to project Scottish authority into the Irish Sea, and draw Óláfr into David 1's sphere of influence.

Besides his wife Affraic, the chronicle states that Óláfr had many concubines by whom he had several daughters and three sons: Ragnvaldr (fl. 1164), Logmaðr, and Haraldr. The B-text of the thirteenth-century Fagrskinna records that Óláfr married Ingibjørg, daughter of Hákon Pálsson, Earl of Orkney (died c.1126). Whilst Ingibjørg is not referred to by the chronicle, she is certainly linked to Óláfr by Orkneyinga saga, although this source also incorrectly states — in a passage concerning Guðrøðr's son and successor, Ragnvaldr (died 1229) — that Ingibjørg was Guðrøðr's mother. As a consequence of this error, there is reason to suspect that the saga has conflated Guðrøðr's son with Somairle's like-named son, Ragnall (died 1191/1192–c.1210/1227). The saga's confused entry, therefore, may be evidence that Ingibjørg was the mother of Óláfr's daughter, Ragnhildr. The terminology employed by the sources documenting Affraic and Ingibjørg reveal that the latter's relationship with Óláfr came to be viewed differently in Orkney than the Isles. Although Orkneyinga saga acknowledges that the union between Ingibj?rg's own parents was not a canonical marriage either, the coupling formed the basis for her family's claim to the earldom. Whatever the case, Óláfr's union with Ingibjørg likely predates his marriage to Affraic. Accordingly, Óláfr appears to have turned from an alliance with Ingibjørg's brother and Norwegian dependant, Páll Hákonarson, Earl of Orkney (died 1137), to establish an alliance with Fergus, who was then a rising power in the Irish Sea region. The end result of this shift may be alluded to by the chronicle which states that Óláfr held peaceful alliances with Irish and Scottish kings so that none - dared disturbed - the Kingdom of the Isles.

Whilst at the English royal court, Óláfr could well have met members of the Scottish monarchy. For example, Henry 1's wife was Matilda (died 1118), whose royal brothers, Alexander 1 and the future David 1, King of Scotland (died 1153), both resided in England before the onset of their reigns (the brothers respectively reigned in 1102–1124 and 1124–1153). Óláfr would have certainly been exposed to Henry 1's efforts to reform the English Church. Both Matilda and her husband were renowned patrons of religious orders, the Augustinians in particular. Although Óláfr's stay at Henry's court predated the arrival of the Savignac and Cisterian orders in England, Óláfr's experiences in England clearly influenced his decision to introduce reformed monastic orders into his own realm. In fact, the ecclesiastical actions of Óláfr's Scottish contemporaries—David I, and his predecessing Alexander 1 — were similarly influenced by their time spent in England. Óláfr's interest in religious reform is alluded to by the Chronicle of Mann, which declares:

He was devout and enthusiastic in matters of religion and was welcome both to God and men.

The ecclesiastical jurisdiction within Óláfr's kingdom was the Diocese of the Isles. Little is known of its early history, although its origins may well lie with the Uí Ímair imperium. Ecclesiastical interconnection between the Isles and Dublin seems to have been severed during a period of Irish overlordship of Dublin, at about the beginning of Guðrøðr Crovan's reign in the Isles. By the time of Óláfr's reign, the diocese appears to have encompassed the islands that had formerly been claimed by Magnús, and may well have included territory in western Galloway. In a letter that appears to date to about 1113, at about start of his reign, Óláfr presented an unnamed bishop for consecration to an Archbishop of York. Although the letter identifies the bishop with the initial - G - which potentially could represent Gerald (died 1108), whose tenure dates to 1100–1108, the fact that Óláfr's reign appears to have commenced several years later suggests that the initial is erroneous, and that the initial - T - was intended, perhaps in reference to either archbishop Thomas (died 1114), or the Thomas' successor, Thurstan (died 1140). No consecration is recorded in English sources, and Óláfr's candidate is not recorded in the chronicle.

In about 1134, the chronicle reveals that Óláfr founded the abbey of St Mary of Rushen on Mann by granting Ivo, Abbot of Furness land to establish the house. As a Savignac daughter house of the nearby abbey of St Mary of Furness—a religious house seated just across the Irish Sea in Lancashire — the abbey of Rushen was the first reformed house in the Isles, and its foundation partly evidences the importance of links between Mann and northern England. The abbey's foundation charter reveals that Óláfr granted the monks of Furness the right to elect the Bishop of the Isles, a provision that further emphasised Óláfr's royal prerogative. The charter implies that episcopal authority within his realm had fallen to outsiders, and expresses the king's desire that the Isles be administered by its own bishop. This could be evidence that the former diocesan bishop, Hamond, died several years previous, and that a period of vacancy ensued in which neighbouring bishops took up the slack. The reestablishment of the Diocese of Whithorn in 1128, may have been undertaken in this context, and may also signal the loss of western Galloway from the Kingdom of the Isles.

In a letter that probably dates not long after his foundation, Óláfr wrote to Thurstan, and confirmed the candidate elected by the monks of Furness. Hamond's successor appears to have been the shadowy Wimund, Bishop of the Isles (fl. c.1130–c.1150). According to the twelfth-century Historia rerum Anglicarum, Wimund began his ecclesiastical career at Furness before removing to Rushen. Although a twelfth-century chronicle of the ecclesiastical history of York states that Wimund professed obedience to Thomas, this archbishop's early tenure (1109–1114) suggests he has been confused with Thurstan. The fact that this source identifies Wimund's see as sancta ecclesia de Schith ("the holy Church of Skye") seems to be evidence that the diocesan seat had not yet been permanently centred on Mann, and that Wimund was seated at the site of the later mediaeval Snizort Cathedral. As a monk of Furness, Wimund may have originally relocated to Mann in the context of Óláfr's foundation of Rushen. He appears to have been the first Bishop of the Isles elected by the monks of Furness, and seems to have been consecrated by Thurstan. Wimund appears to have used his elevated position to violently seek the inheritance of an Earl of Moray in the late 1140s. Wimund's warring against the Scots eventually forced David 1 to cede him lands near Furness before his capture and mutilation in 1152. It is likely that Wimund's campaigning led to the abandonment of his diocesan see, and that his actions posed a serious threat to Óláfr's authority.

The fact that Wimund is not listed amongst other diocesan bishops by the Chronicle of Mann could be evidence that Óláfr eventually came to repudiate him. A letter from Óláfr to the chapter of York suggests that the king unsuccessfully attempted to have a replacement, a certain Nicholas (fl. 1147-1152), consecrated by Robert de Ghent, Dean of York (died c.1158). The fact that Óláfr interacted with the dean suggests that the correspondence dates between the 1147 deposition of William fitz Herbert, Archbishop of York (died 1154) and the 1152 consecration of Henry Murdac, Archbishop of York (died 1153). Óláfr's inability to have his man consecrated may have been due to the Wimund episode being unresolved at the time. According to Robert de Torigni's Chronica and the thirteenth-century Flores historiarum, Henry Murdac consecrated John (fl. 1152), a Benedictine monk from Normandy, as Bishop of the Isles in 1152. The fact that the Chronicle of Mann fails to record John's name amongst other diocesan bishops appears to indicate that he was an unacceptable candidate to Óláfr and the Islesmen, and that John never occupied his see.

By way of his ecclesiastical actions, Óláfr firmly established the Diocese of the Isles to correspond to the territorial borders of his kingdom, and seems to have initiated the transfer the ecclesiastical obedience of the Isles from the Archdiocese of Canterbury to Archdiocese of York. Such changes may have been orchestrated as a means to further distance his diocese from that of Dublin, where diocesan bishops were consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1152, steps were undertaken by the papacy to elevate the Diocese of Dublin to an archdiocese. Dublin's political and economic ties with the Isles could have meant that the Bishop of the Isles was now in danger of becoming subordinate to the Archbishop of Dublin. For Óláfr, such an event would have threatened to undermine both his ecclesiastical authority and secular power within his own realm. As a result of Óláfr's inability to have Nicholas formally consecrated, and his refusal to accept John as bishop, the episcopal see of the Isles appears to have been vacant at the same time of Dublin's ecclesiastical ascendancy. In consequence, without a consecrated bishop of its own, Óláfr's diocese seems to have been in jeopardy of falling under Dublin's increasing authority. Moreover, in 1152, David 1 attempted to have the dioceses of Orkney and the Isles included within the prospective Scottish Archdiocese of St Andrews.

It may have been in the context of this ecclesiastical crisis in the Isles that Guðrøðr undertook his journey to Norway in 1152. Guðrøðr's overseas objective, therefore, may have been to secure the patronage of a Scandinavian metropolitan willing to protect the Diocese of the Isles. Certainly, Guðrøðr's stay in Norway coincided with the Scandinavian visit of the papal legate Nicholas Breakspeare, Cardinal-Bishop of Albano (died 1159), a man who had been tasked to create Norwegian and Swedish ecclesiastical provinces in order to further extend the papacy's authority into the northern European periphery. Eventually the newly created Norwegian province—the Archdiocese of Niðaróss—encompassed eleven dioceses within and outwith mainland Norway. One such overseas diocese was that of the Isles, officially incorporated within the province in November 1154. Although Óláfr did not live long enough to witness the latter formality, it is evident that the remarkable overseas statecraft undertaken by Óláfr and Guðrøðr secured their kingdom's ecclesiastical and secular independence from nearby Dublin. The establishment of the Norwegian archdiocese bound outlying Norse territories closer to Norwegian royal power. In effect, the political reality of the Diocese of the Isles — its territorial borders and nominal subjection to far-off Norway — appears to have mirrored that of the Kingdom of the Isles.

In some respects, Óláfr's kingship may be comparable to that of David 1, who has come to regarded by modern historiography as a significant moderniser of the Scottish realm. have introduced modern forms of feudalism into his realm, and to have developed manorialism on Mann. He seems to have introduced the parochial system into the Isles; and like David 1, Óláfr transformed the church within his realm, creating a territorially defined diocese. His establishment of a more modern territorial kingship, which came to be associated with its demesne on Mann, may have led to the alienation of outlying areas. Although climatic conditions in the Isles improved in the eleventh century, and agricultural production appears to have increased as a result, there appears to have been a decrease in manufacturing by the twelfth century. Evidence of an eleventh-century mint on Mann exists prior to Guðrøðr Crovan's rule, but there is no evidence of one during Óláfr's reign, and no coins bearing the names of any of the members of his dynasty have been found.

The acclamation or election of a king was an important component of kingship in northern mediaeval Europe. There are several examples of the role played by chieftains in the kingship of the Isles during Óláfr's floruit. For instance, the leading men of the realm are recorded to have brokered the deal to have Muirchertach provide a regent until Óláfr was old enough to reign, whilst disaffected chieftains are reported to have brought about the dramatic end of Ingimundr's regency, and chieftains are said to have accompanied Óláfr from England to begin his reign. Even in the immediate aftermath of Óláfr's demise, the Chronicle of Mann reveals that the chieftains of the Isles (principes insularum) gathered together and unanimously elected Guðrøðr as king.

There is surviving evidence of only twenty royal charters dating from the reign of the Crovan dynasty. Of these, only one dates to the reign of Óláfr. Óláfr styled himself rex insularum, a Latin equivalent of a Gaelic title first accorded to his 10th century predecessor, Guðrøðr Haraldsson, King of the Isles (died 989). Surviving sources indicate that Óláfr was the first of several kings from his dynasty to claim to rule dei gratia (by the grace of God). The use of this formula was common amongst contemporary European monarchs but its use by the kings of the Isles, like the kings of Scotland, appears to have been adopted in imitation of the charters issued by the Angevin kings of England. Like the Scots, Óláfr and his successors appear to have adopted the formula to emphasise their sovereign right to kingship, to take their place amongst the leading monarchs of their time. Óláfr's use of the formula exemplifies the fact that — in comparison to his royal predecessors in the Isles — he was a new kind of ruler and the real founder of later Manx kingship. The fact that Óláfr was brought up at the English royal court could suggest that he, like David 1, was knighted by the English king. Certainly, several of Óláfr's thirteenth-century royal successors were knighted by their English counterpart.

Óláfr appears to have been an energetic king who consolidated his rule in the northern portion of the Isles by way of military force. There is reason to suspect that this region had fallen under Orcadian influence before being reclaimed by the Islesmen under Óláfr. According to Hebridean tradition preserved by the seventeenth-century Sleat History, he was aided by Somairle in military operations (otherwise unrecorded in contemporary sources) against the ancient Danes north of Ardnamurchan. Together with its claim that Óláfr also campaigned on North Uist, this source may be evidence that the bitter struggle between Guðrøðr and Somairle (fought after Óláfr's demise) took place in the context of Somairle taking back territories that he had originally helped secure into Óláfr's kingdom. Somairle first emerges into the historical record in the 1130s supporting an unsuccessful rival branch of the Scottish royal family against David 1. By about the time of Somairle's marriage to Óláfr's daughter, David 1 seems to have successfully imposed his authority over Argyll. As a result of this apparent overlorship, Somairle may have been encouraged to redirect his energies from Scotland into the Isles.

There is reason to suspect that the Kingdom of the Isles lost control of territories in Galloway during Óláfr's floruit. Earlier in the mid eleventh century, the Rhinns of Galloway may have been ruled by Guðrøðr Crovan's predecessor, Echmarcach. By the last years of the century, the region was ruled by Mac Congail, King of the Rhinns (died 1094), who may have been a descendant of Guðrøðr Crovan's immediate predecessor, Fingal mac Gofraid. Whether Mac Congail ruled independently or subordinate to Guðrøðr Crovan is unknown. The installation of Gilla Aldan (died 1151-1154) as Bishop of Whithorn, in the third decade of the twelfth century, may mark the date when the Rhinns finally separated from the Kingdom of the Isles. Although support from the rulers of Galloway and Scotland may well have strengthened Óláfr's position in the Isles, and the chronicle portrays his reign as one of peacefulness, other sources vaguely recount the mainland depredations wrought by Wimund. The latter's warring against the Scots suggests that Óláfr may have struggled to maintain control of his far-flung kingdom.

It is uncertain how the Diocese of the Isles was organised during Óláfr's reign. There may well have been several regional centres where diocesan bishops, accompanied by retinues of clerics and warriors, would have visited each successive region, living off the rendered tithes. In time however, the ecclesiastical endowments on Mann, commenced by Óláfr and further developed by his successors, would have reduced the need for such peripatetic diocesan bishops. As the kings of the Isles became more identified with their seat on Mann, so too were the bishops of the Isles, which may have resulted in the alienation of outlying areas.

The now-ruinous ecclesiastical site of Cille Donnain, near Loch Kildonan on South Uist, could well have been a bishop's seat and twelfth-century power-centre in the Isles. Its precise place in the organisation of the Isles is uncertain. Certainly, L?gmaðr is associated with the Uists by a particular verse of poetry, attributed to the contemporary skald Gísl Illugason, preserved by the early thirteenth-century Morkinskinna. This contemporary composition could be evidence of a connection between him, or an associated bishop, with the Uist chain of islands. It is possible that, at a later date, the Cille Donnain site could have formed a residence for the peripatetic diocesan bishops of the Isles during their periodic visitations in the Uists.

The year 1153 was a watershed in the history of the Kingdom of the Isles. Not only did David 1 die late in May, but Óláfr himself was assassinated about a month later on 29 June, whilst Guðrøðr was still absent in Norway. According to the Chronicle of Mann, Óláfr had been confronted by three Dublin-based nephews—the Haraldssonar—the sons of his exiled brother, Haraldr. After hearing the demands of these men — that half of the kingdom should be handed over to them — a formal council was convened in which one of the Haraldssonar — a man named Ragnvaldr — approached Óláfr, raised his axe as if to salute the king, and decapitated him in a single stroke. In the resulting aftermath, the chronicle relates that the Haraldssonar partitioned the island amongst themselves. Whether the men attained any form of authority in the rest of the Isles is unknown. Once in control of Mann, the chronicle reveals that the men fortified themselves against forces loyal to Guðrøðr, the kingdom's legitimate heir, by launching a preemptive strike against his maternal grandfather, Fergus. Although the invasion of Galloway was repulsed with heavy casualties, once the Haraldssonar returned to Mann the chronicle records that they slaughtered and expelled all resident Gallovidians that they could find. This ruthless reaction evidently reveals an attempt to uproot local factions adhering to Guðrøðr and his mother.

Within months of his father's assassination, Guðrøðr executed his vengeance. According to the chronicle, he journeyed from Norway to Orkney, enstrengthened by Norwegian military support, and was unanimously acclaimed as king by the leading Islesmen. He is then stated to have continued on to Mann where he overcame his three kin-slaying cousins, putting one to death whilst blinding the other two, and successfully secured the kingship for himself. Guðrøðr's reliance upon Norwegian assistance, instead of support from his maternal-grandfather, could suggest that the attack upon Galloway was more successful than the compiler of the chronicle cared to admit. Additionally, the account of incessant inter-dynastic strife amongst the ruling family of Galloway, recorded in the twelfth-century Vita Ailredi, suggests that Fergus may have struggled to maintain control of his lordship by the mid 1150s, and may also explain his failure to come to Guðrøðr's aid following Óláfr's death.

The fact that Óláfr sent Guðrøðr to Norway in 1152 could suggest there had been anxiety over the succession of the Kingdom of the Isles, and that Guðrøðr rendered homage to Ingi Haraldsson, King of Norway (died 1161) in an effort secure assistance in safeguarding the kingship. The chronicle's account of Guðrøðr's return from Norway notes that he arrived with a fleet of five ships, which could indicate that overseas support was indeed obtained. The earlier episode of conflict between Óláfr's elder brothers, his own slaying at the hands of his nephews, and the later internecine struggles endured by his descendants, reveal that competition for the kingship of the Isles was incredibly competitive and exceptionally violent. The turn to Ingi occurred at about the same time that Norwegian encroachment superseded roughly thirty years of Scottish influence in Orkney and Caithness,[280] and could be evidence of a perceived wane in Scottish royal authority in the first years of the 1150s. In November 1153, following the death of David 1, Somairle seized the initiative and rose in revolt against the recently inaugurated Malcolm 4, King of Scotland (died 1165). The dynastic challenges faced by Malcolm, and the ebb of Scottish influence in the Isles, may partly account for Guðrøðr's success in consolidating control of the kingdom, and may be perceptible in the seemingly more aggressive policy he pursued as king in comparison to his father.

Through Guðrøðr, Óláfr was the patrilineal-ancestor of later rulers of the Crovan dynasty, a kindred whose tenure of power in the Isles lasted until the second half of the thirteenth century. Through Ragnhildr, Óláfr was an important ancestor of the rulers of Clann Somairle, the descendants of Ragnhildr's husband Somairle. Whilst the union certainly testifies to Somairle's esteemed status, the key to his successful career may well have been the marriage itself. In fact, the chronicle and Orkneyinga saga reveal that the early rulers of Clann Somairle owed their claim to the kingship of the Isles by right of their genealogical link to Óláfr through Ragnhildr.

Although the burial place of Óláfr is unrecorded and unknown, by the second quarter of the thirteenth century St Mary of Rushen appears to have filled the role of royal mausoleum for the Crovan dynasty. Guðrøðr was himself buried on Iona, an island upon which the oldest intact building is St Oran's Chapel. Certain Irish influences in this building's architecture indicate that it dates to about the mid twelfth century. The chapel could well have been erected by Óláfr or Guðrøðr. Certainly, their family's remarkable ecclesiastical activities during this period suggest that patronage of Iona is probable.

Family/Spouse: Affraic av Galloway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Bef 1187, Dublin, Irland; Konge av Dublin og øyene mot England-Skottland (del 1).
• Occupation: Bef 1187, Dublin, Irland; Konge av Dublin og øyene mot England-Skottland (del 2).

Notes:

Occupation:
Guðrøðr Óláfsson (died 10 November 1187) was a twelfth-century ruler of the kingdoms of Dublin and the Isles. Guðrøðr was a son of Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles and Affraic, daughter of Fergus, Lord of Galloway. Throughout his career, Guðrøðr battled rival claimants to the throne, permanently losing about half of his realm to a rival dynasty in the process. Although dethroned for nearly a decade, Guðrøðr clawed his way back to regain control of a partitioned kingdom, and proceeded to project power into Ireland. Although originally opposed to the English invasion of Ireland, Guðrøðr adeptly recognised the English ascendancy in the Irish Sea region and aligned himself with the English. All later kings of the Crovan dynasty descended from Guðrøðr.

In the last year of his father's reign, Guðrøðr was absent at the court of Ingi Haraldsson, King of Norway, forging closer ties with the Kingdom of Norway. When Óláfr was assassinated by rival members of the Crovan dynasty in 1153, Guðrøðr returned to the Isles, overthrew his usurping cousins, and seized the throne for himself. Guðrøðr evidently pursued a more aggressive policy than his father, and the following year appears to have lent military assistance to Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, King of Cenél nEógain in the latter's bid for the high-kingship of Ireland. Not long afterwards, Guðrøðr faced a dynastic challenge from his brother-in-law, Somairle mac Gilla Brigte, Lord of Argyll, whose son, as a grandson of Óláfr, possessed a claim to the throne. Late in 1156, Guðrøðr and Somaile fought an inconclusive sea-battle and partitioned the kingdom of the Isles between them. Two years later Somairle stuck again and forced Guðrøðr from the Isles altogether.

Guðrøðr appears to have spent his exile in the kingdoms of England and Scotland before journeying to Norway. In about 1161, Guðrøðr distinguished himself in the ongoing Norwegian civil wars at the final downfall of Ingi. Guðrøðr made his return to the Isles in 1164, in the aftermath of Somairle's defeat and death at the hands of the Scots. Although he regained the kingship itself, the territories ceded to Somairle in 1156 were retained by the latter's descendants. At some point in his career, Guðrøðr briefly held the kingship of Dublin. Although he was initially successful in fending off Muirchertach, the Dubliners eventually settled with the latter, and Guðrøðr returned to the Isles. This episode may have bearing on Guðrøðr's marriage to Findguala ingen Néill, Muirchertach's granddaughter. In 1170, Dublin fell to an Anglo-Irish alliance. The following year the ousted King of Dublin attempted to retake the town, and Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht attempted to dislodge the English from Dublin. In both cases, Guðrøðr appears to have provided military assistance against the English. In succeeding years, however, Guðrøðr aligned himself with one of the most powerful English conquerors, John de Courcy. Guðrøðr's assistance to John, who had married Guðrøðr's daughter, Affrica, may have played a critical role in John's successful conquest of the Kingdom of Ulaid. Guðrøðr died in 1187 and was succeeded by his eldest son, R?gnvaldr. Although Guðrøðr may have attempted to avert any succession disputes between his descendants, R?gnvaldr and his younger brother, Óláfr svarti, eventually fought each over the throne, and the resulting conflict carried on into later generations.

Guðrøðr was a son of Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles (died 1153) and his wife Affraic ingen Fergusa. The men were members of the Crovan dynasty, a Norse-Gaelic kindred descended from Guðrøðr Crovan, King of Dublin and the Isles (died 1095). Following Guðrøðr Crovan's death in 1095, there is a period of uncertainty in the history of the Kingdom of the Isles. Although the latter's eldest son, Logmaðr, appears to have succeeded to the kingship, he was soon forced to content with factions supporting his younger brothers: Haraldr, and Óláfr. Although he successfully dealt with Haraldr, foreign powers from Ireland intruded into the Isles, and Magnús Óláfsson, King of Norway (died 1103) seized control of the kingdom. At some point, Óláfr was entrusted to the protection of Henry 1, King of England (died 1135), and spent his youth in England before his eventual restoration as King of the Isles in the second decade of the twelfth century.

The thirteenth–fourteenth-century Chronicle of Mann reveals that Guðrøðr's mother, Affraic, was a daughter of Fergus, Lord of Galloway (died 1161). Several contemporary sources concerning Fergus' descendants suggest that he was married to an illegitimate daughter of Henry I, and that this woman was the mother of at least some of his offspring, including Affraic herself. Although the union between Guðrøðr's parents is not dated in contemporary sources, it appears to have been arranged in the 1130s or 1140s. The marital alliance forged between Óláfr and Fergus gave the Crovan dynasty valuable familial-connections with the English Crown, one of the most powerful monarchies in western Europe. As for Fergus, the union bound Galloway more tightly to a neighbouring kingdom from which an invasion had been launched during the overlordsship of Magnús. The alliance with Óláfr also ensured Fergus the protection of one of Britain's most formidable fleets, and further gave him a valuable ally outwith the orbit of the Scottish Crown.

Another alliance involving Óláfr was that with Somairle mac Gilla Brigte, Lord of Argyll (died 1164). Perhaps at about 1140, during a period when the latter was an apparent dependant of David 1, King of Scotland (died 1153), Somairle married Ragnhildr, one of Óláfr's illegitimate daughters. There is reason to suspect that the alliance was an after effect of the Scottish Crown's advancing overlordship. The marriage itself had severe repercussions on the later history of the Isles, as it gave the Meic Somairle—the descendants of Somairle and Ragnhildr—a claim to the kingship through Ragnhildr's royal descent. In the words of the chronicle, the union was the cause of the collapse of the entire Kingdom of the Isles.

Although the Chronicle of Mann portrays Óláfr's reign as one of tranquillity, a more accurate evaluation of his reign may be that he adeptly managed to navigate an uncertain political climate. By the mid part of the twelfth century, however, the ageing king's realm may well have begun to buckle under the strain, as perhaps evidenced by the depredations wrought on the Scottish mainland by Óláfr's leading ecclesiast, Wimund, Bishop of the Isles (fl. c.1130–c.1150). Confirmation of Óláfr's concern over the royal succession may well be preserved by the Chronicle of Mann, which states that Guðrøðr journeyed to the court of Ingi Haraldsson, King of Norway (died 1161) in 1152, where Guðrøðr rendered homage to the Norwegian king, and seemingly secured recognition of the royal inheritance of the Isles. According to Robert's Chronica, the kings of the Isles owed the kings of Norway a tribute of ten gold marks upon the accession of a new Norwegian king. This statement could indicate that Guðrøðr rendered Ingi such a payment upon his visit to the Norwegian court in 1152.

The following year marked a watershed in the history for the Kingdom of the Isles. For not only did David die late in May, but Óláfr himself was assassinated about a month later, on 29 June, whilst Guðrøðr was still absent in Norway. According to the chronicle, Óláfr had been confronted by three Dublin-based nephews—the Haraldssonar—the sons of his exiled brother, Haraldr. After hearing the demands of these men—that half of the kingdom should be handed over to them—a formal council was convened in which one of the Haraldssonar slew Óláfr himself. In the resulting aftermath, the chronicle relates that the Haraldssonar partitioned the island amongst themselves. Once in control, the chronicle reveals that the men fortified themselves against forces loyal to Guðrøðr, the kingdom's legitimate heir, by launching a preemptive strike against his maternal grandfather, Fergus. Although the invasion of Galloway was repulsed with heavy casualties, once the Haraldssonar returned to Mann the chronicle records that they slaughtered and expelled all resident Gallovidians that they could find. This ruthless reaction evidently reveals an attempt to uproot local factions adhering to Guðrøðr and his mother. Whatever the case, within months of his father's assassination, Guðrøðr executed his vengeance. According to the chronicle, he journeyed from Norway to Orkney, enstrengthened by Norwegian military support, and was unanimously acclaimed as king by the leading Islesmen. He is then stated to have continued on to Mann where he overcame his three kin-slaying cousins, putting one to death whilst blinding the other 2, and successfully secured the kingship for himself. Whether Guðrøðr succeeded to the throne in 1153 or 1154 is uncertain. The chronicle itself states that he overcame the Haraldssonar in the autumn following their coup.

Guðrøðr's reliance upon Norwegian assistance, instead of support from his maternal-grandfather, could suggest that the attack upon Galloway was more successful than the compiler of the chronicle cared to admit. Additionally, the account of incessant inter-dynastic strife amongst the ruling family of Galloway, as recorded by the twelfth-century Vita Ailredi, suggests that Fergus may have struggled to maintain control of his lordship by the mid 1150s, and may also explain his failure to come to Guðrøðr's aid following Óláfr's death. Óláfr and Guðrøðr's turn to Ingi occurred at about the same time that Norwegian encroachment superseded roughly thirty years of Scottish influence in Orkney and Caithness, and could be evidence of a perceived wane in Scottish royal authority in the first years of the 1150s. In November 1153, following the death of David, Somairle seized the initiative and rose in revolt against the recently inaugurated Malcolm 4, King of Scotland (died 1165). The dynastic-challenges faced by Malcolm, and the ebb of Scottish influence in the Isles, may partly account for Guðrøðr's success in consolidating control of the kingdom, and may be perceptible in the seemingly more aggressive policy he pursued as king in comparison to his father.

Midway through the twelfth-century, Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, King of Cenél nEógain (died 1166) pressed forth to claim to the high-kingship of Ireland, an office then held by the elderly Toirrdelbach Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht (died 1156). In 1154, the forces of Toirrdelbach and Muirchertach met in a major conflict fought off the Inishowen coast, in what was perhaps one of the greatest naval battles of the twelfth century. According to the seventeenth-century Annals of the Four Masters, Muirchertach's maritime forces were mercenaries drawn from Galloway, Arran, Kintyre, Mann, and the territories of Scotland. This record appears to be evidence that Guðrøðr, Fergus, and perhaps Somairle, provided ships to Muirchertach's cause. Although Toirrdelbach's forces obtained a narrow victory, his northern maritime power seems to have been virtually nullified by the severity of the contest, and Muirchertach soon after marched on Dublin, gained overlordship over the Dubliners, and effectively secured himself the high-kingship of Ireland for himself.

The defeat of forces drawn from the Isles, and Muirchertach's subsequent spread of power into Dublin, may have had severe repercussions concerning Guðrøðr's career. In 1155 or 1156, the Chronicle of Mann reveals that Somairle precipitated a coup against Guðrøðr, specifying that Þorfinnr Óttarsson, one of the leading men of the Isles, produced Somairle's son, Dubgall, as a replacement to Guðrøðr's rule. Somairle's stratagem does not appear to have received unanimous support, however, as the chronicle specifies that the leading Islesmen were made to render pledges and surrender hostages unto him.

Late in 1156, on the night of 5-6 January, Somairle and Guðrøðr finally clashed in a bloody but inconclusive sea-battle. According to the chronicle, Somairle's fleet numbered eighty ships, and when the fighting concluded, the men divided the Kingdom of the Isles between themselves. Although the precise partitioning is unrecorded and uncertain, the allotment of lands seemingly held by Somairle's descendants in the twelfth- and thirteenth centuries could be evidence that he and his son gained the southern-most islands of the Hebrides, whilst Guðrøðr retained the northern-most. Two years later the chronicle reveals that Somairle, with a fleet of fifty-three ships, attacked Mann and drove Guðrøðr from the kingship and into exile. According to the thirteenth-century Orkneyinga saga, the contemporary Orcadian warlord Sveinn Ásleifarson (died 1171?) had connections in the Isles, and overcame Somairle in battle at some point in the twelfth century. Although this source's account of Sveinn and Somairle is clearly somewhat garbled, it could be evidence that Sveinn aided Guðrøðr in his struggle against Somairle. Although the young Dubgall may well have been the nominal King of the Isles following Guðrøðr's final defeat, the chronicle makes it clear that it was Somairle who possessed the real power, and certain Irish source regarded Somairle as king by the end of his career. Why Somairle's son was selected in his place is uncertain; it may have been because Somairle himself was somehow an unacceptable candidate to the Islesmen, and that Ragnhildr's ancestry lent credibility to Dubgall that Somairle lacked himself.

Contemporaneous sources reveal that, upon his expulsion, Guðrøðr attempted to garner royal support in England and Scotland. For example, the English Pipe rolls record that, in 1158, the sheriffs of Worcester and Gloucester received allowances for payments made to Guðrøðr for arms and equipment. Guðrøðr may have arrived in England by way of Wales. The English Crown's recent use of naval forces off the Gwynedd coast, as well as Guðrøðr's own familial links with the king himself, may account for the Guðrøðr's attempts to secure English assistance. Whatever the case, Guðrøðr was unable to gain Henry 2's help, and the latter proceeded to busy himself in Normandy. Guðrøðr next appears on record in Scotland, the following year, when he witnessed a charter of Malcolm to Kelso Abbey. The fact that the Scottish Crown had faced opposition from Somairle in 1153 could suggest that Malcolm was sympathetic to Guðrøðr's plight. Although the latter was certainly honourably treated by the Scots, as revealed by his prominent place amongst the charter's other witnesses, he was evidently unable to secure military support against Somairle.

It is uncertain why Guðrøðr did not turn to his grandfather, Fergus, for aid. One possibility is that the defeat of the Gallovidian fleet in 1154 severely weakened the latter's position in Galloway. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that Galloway endured a bitter power struggle later that decade. According to the twelfth–thirteenth-century Chronicle of Holyrood, Malcolm overcame certain - confederate enemies - in Galloway in 1160. Although the exact identities of these opponents are unknown, it is possible that this source documents a Scottish victory over an alliance between Somairle and Fergus. Before the end of the year, Fergus retired to Holyrood Abbey, and Somairle came into the king's peace. Although the concordat between the Scottish Crown and Somairle may have taken place after the Malcolm's subjugation of Somairle and Fergus, an alternate possibility is that the agreement was concluded in the context of Somairle having aided the Scots in their overthrow of Fergus. Somairle's deal with Scottish Crown may also have been undertaken not only in an effort to ensure that his own authority in the Isles was recognised by Malcolm, but to limit any chance of Guðrøðr receiving future royal support from the Scots.

Having failed to secure substantial support in England and Scotland, Guðrøðr appears to have turned to Ingi, his nominal Norwegian overlord. In late 1160 or early 1161, Guðrøðr distinguished himself in the ongoing civil war in the Norwegian realm, as evidenced by Hákonar saga herðibreiðs within the thirteenth-century saga-compilation Heimskringla. The fact that the Icelandic Annals allege that Guðrøðr assumed the kingship of the Isles in 1160 could be evidence that, whilst in Norway, Ingi formally recognised Guðrøðr as king in a public ceremony. There is reason to suspect that Guðrøðr's support of Ingi may have been undertaken in the context of fulfilling military obligations as a vassal. Be that as it may, Hákonar saga herðibreiðs reveals that Guðrøðr played an important part in Ingi's final downfall in battle at Oslo in 1161. Up until 1155, Ingi had shared the kingship with his brothers Sigurðr (died 1155) and Eysteinn (died 1157). With both of these brothers dead by 1157, Ingi was forced to contend with Hákon Sigurðarson (died 1162), who had been elected to the kingship within the year. In regard to Guðrøðr himself, the saga relates that during this final battle against Hákon, Guðrøðr, at the head of fifteen-hundred men, went over to Hákon's side. Guðrøðr's decision to abandon his embattled overlord tipped the scales in favour of Hákon, and directly contributed to Ingi's defeat and death. The young Magnús Erlingsson (died 1184) was elected king after Ingi's death, and following the fall of Hákon, was crowned king in 1163-1164. It is likely that Guðrøðr was present at Magnús Erlingsson's coronation, and possible that Guðrøðr rendered homage to him as well.

Somairle was slain in an unsuccessful invasion of mainland Scotland in 1164. The declaration in the fifteenth–sixteenth-century Annals of Ulster, of Somairle's forces being drawn from Argyll, Kintyre, Dublin, and the Isles, reveals the climax of Somairle's authority and further confirms his usurpation of power from Guðrøðr. Despite the record preserved by the Icelandic Annals—that Guðrøðr regained the kingship of the Isles in 1160—it appears that Guðrøðr made his actual return to the region after Somairle's fall. Although it is possible that Dubgall was able to secure power following his father's demise, it is evident from the Chronicle of Mann that the kingship was seized by Guðrøðr's brother, R?gnvaldr (fl. 1164), before the end of the year. Almost immediately afterwards, Guðrøðr is said by the same source to have arrived on Mann, ruthlessly overpowered his brother, and regained the kingship once and for all. Upon Guðrøðr's reestablishment in the Isles, the realm was partitioned between two closely related rival kindreds: the Meic Somairle and Crovan dynasty.

In an entry dated 1172, the chronicle states that Mann was invaded by a certain Ragnall mac Echmarcacha, a man who slaughtered a force of Manx coast-watchers before being slain himself in a later engagement on the island. Although the chronicle claims that Ragnall was of - royal stock - his identity is otherwise uncertain. One possibility is that this man's final adventure was somehow related to the dramatic fall of Norse-Gaelic Dublin in the preceding years. He could have possessed a connection with the former rulers of the town, as a distant relative of Echmarcach mac Ragnaill, King of Dublin and the Isles (died 1064-1065). Another possibility is that the attack was somehow related to events in northern Ireland, where the Meic Lochlainn lost hold of the Cenél nEógan kingship to Áed Méith. In fact, it is possible that the invader himself was a member of the Uí Catháin, a branch of the Uí Néill who were opponents of John de Courcy (died c. 1219), Guðrøðr's English ally and son-in-law.

Occupation:
For a brief duration of his career, Guðrøðr appears to have possessed the kingship of Dublin. The chronology of his rule is unclear, however, as surviving sources concerning this episode are somewhat contradictory. According to the Chronicle of Mann, the Dubliners invited Guðrøðr to rule over them as king in the third year of his reign in the Isles. If correct, such an arrangement would have almost certainly provoked Muirchertach, the Dubliners' Irish overlord. In fact, the chronicle reveals that Muirchertach indeed took exception to such overtures, and marched on Dublin with a massive host before forming up at Cortcelis. Whilst in control of Dublin, Guðrøðr and the defending Dubliners are stated to have repulsed a force of 3.000 horsemen under the command of a certain Osiblen. After the latter's fall, Muirchertach and his remaining host retired from the region.

The chronicle's version of events appears to be corroborated by the Annals of Ulster. Unlike the previous source, however, this one dates the episode to 1162. Specifically, Muirchertach's forces are recorded to have devastated the Ostman lands of - Magh Fitharta - before his host of horsemen were repulsed. Despite the difference in their chronologies, both accounts refer to similar military campaigns, and the uncertain place names of - Cortcelis - and - Magh Fitharta - may well refer to nearby locations roughly in the Boyne Valley. Another source documenting the conflict is the Annals of the Four Masters. According this account preserved by this source, after Muirchertach's setback at Dublin and subsequent withdrawal in 1162, he left the forces of Leinster and Mide to campaign against the Dubliners. In time, the source states that a peace was concluded between the Irish and the Dubliners in which the latter rendered a tribute of one hundred forty ounces of gold to Muirchertach. The payment reveals that the Dubliners recognised Muirchertach as their overlord, which in turn suggests that the price for peace was Guðrøðr's removal from the kingship.

In the winter of 1176-1177, the chronicle reveals that Guðrøðr was formally married to Muirchertach's granddaughter, Findguala Nic Lochlainn, in a ceremony conducted under the auspices of the visiting papal legate, Vivian, Cardinal priest of St Stephen in Celio Monte. The precise date when Guðrøðr and Findguala commenced their liaison is unknown, and the two could have been a couple for some time before their formal marriage. It is possible that the union was originally brokered as a compromise on Muirchertach's part, as a means to placate Guðrøðr for withdrawing from Dublin. The demonstrable unreliability of the chronicle's chronology, and the apparent corroboration of events by the Annals of the Four Masters and the Annals of Ulster, suggests that the Guðrøðr's adventure in Dublin date to about 1162. Such a date, however, appears to contradict the fact that Guðrøðr seems to have endured Norwegian exile in 1160-1161, and apparently only returned to the Isles in 1164. If the chronicle's date is indeed correct, Guðrøðr's inability to incorporate Dublin into the Kingdom of the Isles could well have contributed to his loss of status to Somairle.

There may be reason to suspect that Guðrøðr's defeat to Somairle was partly enabled by an alliance between Muirchertach and Somairle. For example, Argyllmen formed part of the mercenary fleet utilised by Muirchertach in 1154, and it is possible that the commander of the fleet, a certain Mac Scelling (fl. 1154–1173/1174), was a relation of Somairle himself. If Muirchertach and Somairle were indeed allied at this point in time it may have meant that Guðrøðr faced a united front of opposition. If correct, it could also be possible that Þorfinnr participated in Somairle's insurrection as an agent of Muirchertach. On the other hand, the fact that Somairle and Muirchertach jostled over ecclesiastical affairs in the 1160s suggests that these two were in fact rivals. Furthermore, the fact that Þorfinnr may have been related to a previous King of Dublin could reveal that Þorfinnr himself was opposed to Muirchertach's foreign overlordship. If Guðrøðr's difficulties in Dublin indeed date to a period just before Somairle's coup, the cooperation of men like Þorfinnr could be evidence that Dubgall, on account of his maternal ancestry and powerful father, was advanced as a potential candidate to the united kingship of Dublin and the Isles.

Later in his reign, Guðrøðr again involved himself in the affairs of Dublin. In 1166, the slaying of Muirchertach meant that 2 men made bids for the high-kingship of Ireland: Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht (died 1198) and Diarmait Mac Murchada, King of Leinster (died 1171). The latter had possessed the overlordship of Dublin since Muirchertach's actions there in 1162. Within the same year as Muirchertach's fall, however, Diarmait was overcome by Ruaidrí and his allies, and forced him from Ireland altogether. Although Ruaidrí thereupon gained the high-kingship for himself, Diarmait made his return the following year enstrengthened with English mercenaries, and reclaimed the core of his lands. In 1170 even more English troops flocked to Diarmait's cause, including Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke (died 1176), who successfully stormed the Norse-Gaelic enclave of Waterford. Richard soon after married Diarmait's daughter, Aífe, and effectively became heir to kingship of Leinster and the overlordship of Dublin. Later that year, the combined forces of Diarmait and Richard marched on Dublin, and drove out the reigning Ascall mac Ragnaill, King of Dublin (died 1171).

According to the twelfth-century Expugnatio Hibernica, Ascall and many of the Dubliners managed to escape by fleeing to the northern islands. On one hand, this term could well refer to Orkney. On the other hand, it is also possible that the term refers to the Hebrides or Mann. If so, this source would appear to be evidence that the Dubliners had retained close links with the Isles. Whatever the case, within weeks of Diarmait's death early in May 1171, Ascall made his return to Dublin. The account of events recorded by Expugnatio Hibernica and the twelfth–thirteenth-century La Geste des Engleis en Yrlande indicate that Ascall's forces consisted of heavily armoured Islesmen and Norwegians. The invasion itself was an utter failure, however, and Ascall himself was captured and executed. Amongst the slain appears to have been Sveinn himself, Guðrøðr's apparent ally in arms.

The successive deaths of Diarmait and Ascall left a power vacuum in Dublin that others sought to fill. Almost immediately after Ascall's fall, for example, Ruaidrí had the English-controlled town besieged. Expugnatio Hibernica records that he and Lorcán Ua Tuathail, Archbishop of Dublin (died 1180) sent for Guðrøðr, and others in the Isles, asking them to blockade Dublin by sea. Whilst it is possible that Guðrøðr may have been enticed to assist the Irish through the promise of financial compensation, and perhaps the possession of any vessel his fleet captured in the operation, there is reason to suspect that the Islesmen were disquieted by prospect of permanent English authority in the region. Certainly, Expugnatio Hibernica states that:

The threat of English domination, inspired by the successes of the English, made the men of the Isles act all the more quickly, and with the wind in the north-west they immediately sailed about thirty ships full of warriors into the harbour of the Liffey.

Although the operation was one of the greatest military mobilisations that the Irish mustered in the twelfth century, the blockade was ultimately a failure, and Dublin remained firmly in the hands of the English. Ascall was the last Norse-Gaelic King of Dublin; and before the end of the year, Clare relinquished possession of Dublin to his own liege lord, Henry 2, who converted it into an English royal town.

With Dublin's defeat at the hands of English adventurers, and the ongoing entrenchment of the English throughout Ireland itself, the Crovan dynasty found itself surrounded by a threatening, rising new power in the Irish Sea zone. Despite his original opposition to the English in Dublin, Guðrøðr did not take long to realign himself with this new power, as exemplified though the marital alliance between his daughter, Affrica (died 1219-), and one of the most powerful incoming Englishmen, John de Courcy.

In 1177, John led an invasion of Ulaid (an area roughly encompassing what is today County Antrim and County Down). He reached Down (modern day Downpatrick), drove off Ruaidrí Mac Duinn Sléibe, King of Ulaid (died 1201), consolidated his conquest, and ruled with a certain amount of independence for about a quarter of a century. Although the precise date of the marriage between John and Affrica is unknown, the union itself may well have attributed to his stunning successes in Ireland. Certainly, decades later in the reign of Guðrøðr's son and successor, R?gnvaldr (died 1229), John received significant military support from the Crovan dynasty, and it is not improbable that Guðrøðr himself supplied similar assistance. In the 1190s, John also received military assistance from Guðrøðr's kinsman Donnchad mac Gilla Brigte, Earl of Carrick (died 1250). Like Guðrøðr, Donnchad was a grandson of Fergus, and it possible that John's marriage to Affrica accounts for Donnchad's cooperation with him.

Although the promise of maritime military support could well have motivated John to align himself with Guðrøðr, there may have been a more significant aspect to their alliance. The rulers of Ulaid and those of Mann had a bitter past-history between them, and it is possible that the binding of John to the Crovan dynasty was actually the catalyst of his assault upon the Ulaid. In fact, Guðrøðr formalised his own marriage to Findguala in 1176/1177, and it was by this union that Guðrøðr bound his own dynasty with the Meic Lochlainn, another traditional foe of the Ulaid. Another contributing factor to the alliance between Guðrøðr and John may have been the Meic Lochlainn's loss of the Cenél nEógain kingship to the rival Uí Néill dynast Áed Méith Ua Néill (died 1230) in 1177. The latter certainly clashed with John before the end of the century, and the strife between the Uí Néill and Meic Lochlainn continued on for decades. Whatever the case, the unions meant that John was protected on his right flank by Guðrøðr, through whom John shared a common interest with the Meic Lochlainn, situated on his left flank. John would have almost certainly attempted to use such alignments to his advantage, whilst Guðrøðr may have used John's campaigning against the Ulaid as a means of settling old scores.

There is reason to regard Óláfr, like his Scottish counterpart David, as a reforming monarch. Guðrøðr continued Óláfr's modernising policies, as evidenced by surviving sources documenting the ecclesiastical history of the Isles. For example, Guðrøðr confirmed his father's charter to the abbey of St Mary of Furness, in which the monks of this Cistercian house were granted the right to select the Bishop of the Isles. Guðrøðr granted the English priory of St Bees the lands of Escheddala (Dhoon Glen) and Asmundertoftes (Ballellin) in exchange for the church of St Óláfr and the lands of Euastad (perhaps near Ballure). In the reigns of Guðrøðr's succeeding sons, the Benedictine priory of St Bees continued to receive royal grants of Manx lands. The Chronicle of Mann reveals that Guðrøðr gave lands at Myroscough to the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx in England. The chronicle also notes that a monastery was constructed on these lands, and that the lands eventually passed into the possession of the abbey of St Mary of Rushen. Guðrøðr also granted certain commercial rights and protections to the monks of the monastery of Holm Cultram, another Cistercian house in England.

The ecclesiastical jurisdiction within Guðrøðr's kingdom was the Diocese of the Isles. Little is known of its early history, although its origins may well lie with the Uí Ímair imperium. Ecclesiastical interconnection between the Isles and Dublin seems to have been severed during a period of Irish overlordship of Dublin, at about the beginning of Guðrøðr Crovan's reign in the Isles. Before the mid point of the twelfth century, Óláfr firmly established the Diocese of the Isles to correspond to the territorial borders of his kingdom, and seems to have initiated the transfer the ecclesiastical obedience of the Isles from the Archdiocese of Canterbury to Archdiocese of York. Such changes may have been orchestrated as a means to further distance his diocese from that of Dublin, where diocesan bishops were consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1152, steps were undertaken by the papacy to elevate the Diocese of Dublin to an archdiocese. Dublin's political and economic ties with the Isles could have meant that the Bishop of the Isles was now in danger of becoming subordinate to the Archbishop of Dublin. For Óláfr, such an event would have threatened to undermine both his ecclesiastical authority and secular power within his own realm. As a result of Óláfr's inability to have an ecclesiast of his own choice formally consecrated as bishop, and his own refusal to accept one favoured by the Archbishop of York, the episcopal see of the Isles appears to have been vacant at the same time of Dublin's ecclesiastical ascendancy. In consequence, without a consecrated bishop of its own, Óláfr's diocese seems to have been in jeopardy of falling under Dublin's increasing authority. Moreover, in 1152, David 1 attempted to have the dioceses of Orkney and the Isles included within the prospective Scottish Archdiocese of St Andrews.

It may have been in the context of this ecclesiastical crisis in the Isles that Guðrøðr undertook his journey to Norway in 1152. Guðrøðr's overseas objective, therefore, may have been to secure the patronage of a Scandinavian metropolitan willing to protect the Diocese of the Isles. Certainly, Guðrøðr's stay in Norway coincided with the Scandinavian visit of the papal legate Nicholas Breakspeare, Cardinal-Bishop of Albano (died 1159), a man who had been tasked to create Norwegian and Swedish ecclesiastical provinces in order to further extend the papacy's authority into the northern European periphery. Eventually the newly created Norwegian province—the Archdiocese of Niðaróss—encompassed eleven dioceses within and outwith mainland Norway. One such overseas diocese was that of the Isles, officially incorporated within the province in November 1154. Although Óláfr did not live long enough to witness the latter formality, it is evident that the remarkable overseas statecraft undertaken by Óláfr and Guðrøðr secured their kingdom's ecclesiastical and secular independence from nearby Dublin. The establishment of the Norwegian archdiocese bound outlying Norse territories closer to Norwegian royal power. In effect, the political reality of the Diocese of the Isles—its territorial borders and nominal subjection to far-off Norway—appears to have mirrored that of the Kingdom of the Isles.

Despite the ecclesiastical reorientation, the next Bishop of the Isles known from Manx sources was consecrated by Roger de Pont l'Evêque, Archbishop of York (died 1181). This bishop, an Englishman named Gamaliel, may have been consecrated between October 1154 and early 1155, possibly before news of the diocesesan realignment reached the Isles. Although it is possible that Gamaliel was consecrated without Guðrøðr's approval, the bishop appears to have witnessed at least one of the latter's charters. The fact that Gamaliel was buried in Peterborough could suggest that he was removed from his see at some point.

The next known bishop was Reginald (died c.1170), a Norwegian who witnessed the bitter struggles between Guðrøðr and Somairle, and who seems to have died in about 1170. It is possible that Reginald was consecrated in Norway in 1153/1154, and that the York-backed Gamaliel was compelled to resign the see to him. Reginald is the first Bishop of the Isles to be attested by the Icelandic Annals, which could indicate that he was the first such bishop to recognise the authority of Niðaróss. Either Gamaliel or Reginald could have been the unnamed Bishop of the Isles who is stated by Robert's Chronica to have met with William 1, King of Scotland and Henry 2 at Mont St Michel. Robert's account of the meeting indicates that the kings of the Isles were obligated to render tribute to newly crowned kings of Norway. It is possible that Reginald followed Guðrøðr into exile after the latter's defeat to Somairle. Reginald's successor was Cristinus, an Argyllman who appears to have been appointed by either Somairle or his descendants. The fact that Cristinus did not receive acknowledgement from the Archbishop of Niðaróss could be evidence that Reginald remained in Norway. The apparent antipathy between Guðrøðr and Cristinus may be evidenced by the fact that it was Silvanus, Abbot of Rievaulx — and not Cristinus — who conducted the marriage ceremony of Guðrøðr and Findguala during Vivian's visit in 1176.

According to the Chronicle of Mann, Guðrøðr had 4 children: Affrica, Ragnvaldr, Ívarr, and Óláfr svarti (died 1237). Although the chronicle specifically states that Findguala was Óláfr svarti's mother, and that he had been born before his parent's formalised marriage, the mothers of the other three children are unknown or uncertain. According to the anonymous praise-poem Baile suthach síth Emhna, Ragnvaldr's mother was Sadb, an otherwise unknown Irishwoman who may have been a wife or concubine of Guðrøðr. As for Ívarr, nothing further is recorded of him, although it is possible that his mother was also the product of an uncanonical liaison. There may be evidence to suggest that Guðrøðr had another son, Ruaidrí (fl. 1188-1190), who appears in a royal charter recorded as Ragnvaldr's brother (Rotherico, fratre meo).

Guðrøðr died on 10 November 1187 on St Patrick's Isle. The following year, he was finally laid to rest on Iona, an island upon which the oldest intact building is St Oran's Chapel. Certain Irish influences in this building's architecture indicate that it dates to about the mid twelfth century. The chapel could well have been erected by Óláfr or Guðrøðr. Certainly, their family's remarkable ecclesiastical activities during this period suggest that patronage of Iona is probable. Whatever the case, upon Guðrøðr's death the chronicle claims that he left instructions for his younger son, Óláfr svarti, to succeed to the kingship since he had been born in lawful wedlock.

On one hand, this record could be evidence that Guðrøðr continued to advance the institution of kingship in the Isles. For example, this episode appears to be the earliest record of a ruling member of the Crovan dynasty designating a royal successor. If so, such an arrangement may have been borne out of Guðrøðr's own bitter difficulties with rival claimants to the throne.

On the other hand, it is uncertain if the chronicle has preserved an accurate account of events, as the Islesmen are stated to have chosen Ragnvaldr to rule instead, because unlike Óláfr svarti, who was only a child at the time, Ragnvaldr was a hardy young man fully capable to reign as king. One possibility is that Guðrøðr may have intended for Ragnvaldr to temporarily rule as a lieutenant of sorts until Óláfr svarti was able to hold sway himself. Although Ragnvaldr appears to have later forged an alliance with the Meic Somairle, and may have temporarily reunited the entire Kingdom of the Isles under his own leadership, he was later opposed by Óláfr svarti, and the ensuing violent conflict between Guðrøðr's descendants carried on to further generations.

Family/Spouse: Findguala Nic Lochlainn. Findguala (daughter of Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn) was born about 1150 in Ulster, Nord-Irland; died about 1187. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Bef 1229, Isle of Man, England; King of the Isles (del 1).
• Occupation: Bef 1229, Isle of Man, England; King of the Isles (del 2).

Notes:

Occupation:
Ragnvaldr Guðrøðarson (died 14 February 1229) ruled as King of the Isles from 1187 to 1226. He was the eldest son of Guðrøðr Óláfsson, King of Dublin and the Isles. Although the latter may have intended for his younger son, Óláfr, to succeed to the kingship, the Islesmen chose Ragnvaldr, who was likely Óláfr's half-brother. Ragnvaldr went on to rule the Kingdom of the Isles for almost forty years before losing control to Óláfr.

Acclaimed in one near contemporary Scandinavian source as - the greatest warrior in the western lands - Ragnvaldr lent military aid to William 1, King of Scotland against the disaffected Haraldr Maddaðarson, Earl of Orkney and Caithness, and occupied Caithness for a short period of time at about the turn of the thirteenth century. Like his predecessors, Ragnvaldr was closely associated with the rulers of northern Wales. An unnamed daughter of his was betrothed to Rhodri ab Owain, a dynast of the ruling family of Gwynedd. In 1193, Ragnvaldr lent military aid to Rhodri against his rivals. Ragnvaldr was also involved in Irish affairs, as he was the brother-in-law of John de Courcy, one of the most powerful of the incoming Englishmen. With Courcy's eventual fall from power in the first decade of the thirteenth century, Ragnvaldr aided him in an unsuccessful attack on Courcy's rivals.

On numerous occasions from 1205 to 1219, Ragnvaldr bound himself to the English Crown by rendering homage to John, King of England and his successor, Henry 3, King of England. In return for his vassalage, these English rulers promised to assist Ragnvaldr against any threats to his realm, whilst Ragnvaldr pledged to protect English interests in the Irish Sea zone. With the strengthening of Norwegian kingship in the first half of the century, the Norwegian Crown began to look towards the Isles, and in 1210 the region fell prey to a destructive military expedition. In consequence, R?gnvaldr rendered homage to Ingi Bårðarson, King of Norway. The resurgence of Norwegian authority threat may well have been the reason why R?gnvaldr submitted to Pope Honorius 3 in 1219, and promised to pay a perpetual tribute for the protection of his realm.

Óláfr's allotment in Ragnvaldr's island-kingdom appears to have been Lewis and Harris. When confronted by Óláfr for more territory, Ragnvaldr had him seized and incarcerated by the Scots. After almost seven years in captivity, Óláfr was released in 1214, and Ragnvaldr arranged for him to marry the sister of his own wife. Óláfr was able to have this marriage annulled, sometime after 1217, whereupon he married the daughter of a rising Scottish magnate. Outright warfare broke out between the half-brothers in the 1220s, and Óláfr's gains forced Ragnvaldr to turn to the powerful Alan fitz Roland, Lord of Galloway. Ragnvaldr and Alan bound themselves through the marriage of an unnamed daughter of Ragnvaldr to Alan's illegitimate son, Thomas. The prospect of a future Gallovidian king prompted the Manxmen to depose Ragnvaldr in favour of Óláfr. Although Ragnvaldr was initially aided against Óláfr by Alan and his family, Gallovidian military support dramatically diminished over time. On 14 February 1229, the forces of Ragnvaldr and Óláfr clashed for the last time, and Ragnvaldr himself was slain. His body was conveyed to St Mary's Abbey, Furness and buried.

The main source for Ragnvaldr and his reign is the thirteenth–fourteenth-century Chronicle of Mann, a historical account of the rulers of the Hebrides and Mann—the Crovan dynasty in particular—which survives in a Latin manuscript dating to the mid fourteenth century.

Ragnvaldr was a son of Guðrøðr Óláfsson, King of Dublin and the Isles (died 1187), and a member of the Crovan dynasty. In the mid twelfth century, Guðrøðr Óláfsson inherited the kingship of the Isles, a region comprising the Hebrides and Mann. He soon faced internal opposition from his brother-in-law, Somairle mac Gilla Brigte, Lord of Argyll (died 1164), who seized the Inner Hebridean portion of the kingdom in 1153. Three years later, Somairle seized the entire kingdom, and ruled the entirety of the Isles until his death in 1164. Although Guðrøðr Óláfsson regained the kingship, the territories lost to his brother-in-law in 1153 were retained by the latter's descendants, the Meic Somairle (or Clann Somairle).

Guðrøðr Óláfsson had one daughter and at least three sons: Affrica (died 1219-), Ívarr, Óláfr, and Ragnvaldr himself. Although nothing else is certain of Ívarr, Óláfr's mother appears to have been Findguala Nic Lochlainn, an Irishwoman whose marriage to Guðrøðr Óláfsson was formalised in 1176-1177, about the time of Óláfr's birth. When Guðrøðr Óláfsson died in 1187, the Chronicle of Mann claims that he left instructions for Óláfr to succeed to the kingship since the latter had been born in lawful wedlock. Whether this is an accurate record of events is uncertain, as the Islesmen are stated to have chosen Ragnvaldr to rule instead, because unlike Óláfr, who was only a child at the time, Ragnvaldr was a hardy young man fully capable to reign as king.

Although the chronicle seems to imply that Findguala was also Ragnvaldr's mother, at no point does the source state as much. In fact, there is evidence which strongly suggests that Ragnvaldr was the son of another woman. For example, the surviving fragments of a letter sent from Óláfr to Henry 3, King of England (died 1272) in about 1228 reveal that Óláfr described Ragnvaldr as a bastard son of his father. Furthermore, the contemporary Gaelic praise-poem, Baile suthach síth Emhna, declares that he was a son of Sadb, an otherwise unknown Irishwoman who may have been an unrecorded wife or concubine of Guðrøðr. The likelihood that Ragnvaldr and Óláfr had different mothers may well explain the intense conflict between the 2 men in the years that followed. This continuing kin-strife is one of the main themes of Ragnvaldr's long reign.

According to the Chronicle of Mann, Ragnvaldr gave Óláfr possession of a certain island called Lodhus. The chronicle disparagingly describes the island as being mountainous and rocky, completely unsuitable for cultivation, and declares that its small population lived mostly by hunting and fishing.
In fact, Lewis is the northern part of the Outer Hebridean island of Lewis and Harris. Whilst the southern part — Harris — is somewhat mountainous, the aforesaid northern part – Lewis - is rather flat and boggy. The chronicle, therefore, seems to have conflated the northern and southern parts of the island.
Whatever the case, the chronicle claims that, because of the impoverishment of his lands, Óláfr was unable to support himself and his followers, and that in consequence he led a sorry life. The chronicle's otherwise perceptible prejudice against Ragnvaldr's branch of the Crovan dynasty, and its apparent bias in favour of Mann over the northern-most reaches of the realm, may also account for the such a denigrating depiction of the lands allotted to Óláfr.

In consequence of this supposed poverty, the chronicle claims that Óláfr went to Ragnvaldr, who was also living in the Hebrides, and confronted him for more land. Ragnvaldr's stated response was to have Óláfr seized and sent to William 1, King of Scotland (died 1214), who kept him imprisoned for almost seven years. It may be more probable, however, that Ragnvaldr had taken action against Óláfr because the latter had approached the Norwegian Crown, and offered himself as a more palatable vassal-king in return for Norwegian support in deposing Ragnvaldr.

Whatever the case, the chronicle states that William died during the seventh year of Óláfr's captivity, and that William had ordered the release of all his political prisoners before his passing. Since William died in December 1214, Óláfr's incarceration appears to have spanned between about 1207 and 2014 or early 1215. Upon Óláfr's release, the chronicle reveals that the half-brothers met on Mann, after which Óláfr set off on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

At roughly this period, in 1209, the fifteenth–sixteenth-century Annals of Ulster reports that the sons of Ragnall mac Somairle (died 1191-1192 – c.1210-1227) attacked Skye and slaughtered many of the Skyemen. It is unknown if this invasion of Ragnvaldr's realm was any way related to the slaying of Ragnall's brother, Áengus mac Somairle, and the latter's three sons, in the following year. What is certain, however, is that these, and other records concerning the Meic Somairle, reveal that the Crovan dynasty was not alone in introducing instability into the Isles. In fact, the elimination of Áengus and his sons appears to have had serious repercussions on not only the Meic Somairle succession, but Ragnvaldr's kingship in the Isles.

There is earlier evidence of amicable relations between Ragnvaldr and William. The latter faced a series of revolts during his reign, with one particular problem being Haraldr Maddaðarson, Earl of Orkney and Caithness (died 1206). At some point in the last half of the twelfth century, Haraldr Maddaðarson put aside his first wife, and married Hvarfl?ð, described by the thirteenth-centuryOrkneyinga saga as the daughter of an Earl of Moray named Máel Coluim. It may well have been through Hvarfl?ð that Haraldr Maddaðarson was drawn into conflict with the Scottish Crown. Whatever the case, a major continuing theme of Haraldr Maddaðarson's career was the constant assertion of Scottish and Norwegian royal authority into is domain, and his remarkable resistance to such interference.

In 1196, Haraldr Maddaðarson appears to have gained control of Moray. Although William was able to reassert authority in the north, and hand Caithness over to Haraldr Eiríksson (died 1197-1198), a more amiable applicant, Haraldr Maddaðarson managed to overcome the latter, and regained control of the earldom.

It may have been at this point where Ragnvaldr entered the fray. According to Orkneyinga saga, once William learned that Haraldr Maddaðarson had taken control of Caithness, Ragnvaldr was tasked to intervene on behalf of the Scottish Crown. Having received the king's message, the saga records that Ragnvaldr gathered an armed host from the Isles, Kintyre, and Ireland, and went forth into Caithness, where he subdued the region. With the coming of winter, the saga records that Ragnvaldr returned to the Isles after having left three stewards in Caithness. When Haraldr Maddaðarson later had one of these stewards murdered, the saga states that William forced him into submission. The fact that Haraldr Maddaðarson only reasserted his authority action after Ragnvaldr's return to the Isles, coupled with the punishing fine that the former former imposed upon the Caithnessmen once regaining control, suggests that Ragnvaldr had enjoyed support in the region.

Ragnvaldr's involvement in Caithness is also noted by the contemporary English chronicler Roger de Hoveden (died 1201-1202). According to Roger's Chronica, after two rounds of negotiations between Haraldr Maddaðarson and William failed, Ragnvaldr intervened and bought Caithness from William. The precise date of Ragnvaldr's venture is uncertain, although it appears to have occurred in about 1200.
Just prior to Ragnvaldr's involvement, Roger records that Haraldr Maddaðarson ventured into the Isles where he reinforced himself with an armed fleet, before returning to Orkney and Caithnes, and defeating Haraldr Eiríksson at Wick. If this part of Roger's account refers to military aid being received from Ragnvaldr's realm, the fact that Ragnvaldr and Haraldr Maddaðarson later became opponents would appear to reveal the fragility of certain of alliances.
On the other hand, if Roger's account refers to the domain of the Meic Somairle, it could be evidence that Haraldr Maddaðarson was able to garner support from Ragnvaldr's rivals.

Although not descended from previous Orcadian earls, Ragnvaldr could perhaps be considered related to these Norwegian magnates by right of his paternal grandfather's marriage to Ingibj?rg, daughter of Páll Hákonarson, Earl of Orkney (died 1137). If this was indeed the case, William's act of using Ragnvaldr in Caithness may have been an example of the king playing one member of the jarlsaetten against another.

The jarlsaetten were people who possessed a claim to an earldom, in accordance with Norse custom, by right of their descent from previous earls. In fact, William made use of the jarlsaetten when he had earlier granted Caithness to Haraldr Eiríksson, a grandson of Ragnvaldr Kali Kolsson, Earl of Orkney (died 1158). On the other hand, the fact that Ragnvaldr possessed no known blood relationship with the earls could conversely be evidence that he was the first Scottish-backed ruler of Caithness without a personal connection to the Orcadian jarlsaetten.

Whatever the case, although it is not impossible that Ragnvaldr ruled as Earl of Caithness for a short
Ragnvaldr's participation in league with the Scottish Crown could have stemmed from his kinship with the Constable of Scotland, Roland fitz Uhtred, Lord of Galloway (died 1200), or perhaps resulted from a shared enmity towards the Meic Somairle.

There is much confusion surrounding two twelfth-century magnates named Máel Coluim. One was Máel Coluim mac Áeda, Earl of Ross (died c. 1168), whilst the other was Máel Coluim mac Alasdair (fl. 1134), an illegitimate son of Alexander I, King of Scotland (died 1124).

The latter Máel Coluim attempted to seize the Scottish throne earlier in the twelfth century, and appears to have been related in marriage to Somairle's family. If Hvarfl?ð's father was this Máel Coluim, it could explain an alliance between Haraldr Maddaðarson and the Meic Somairle.[112]Such an alliance with Ragnvaldr's rivals could also explain the Scottish Crown's use of him against Haraldr Maddaðarson.

From its earliest years, the Crovan dynasty forged alliances with the northern Welsh rulers of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. Some of the earliest evidence of Ragnvaldr's kingship concerns his involvement in northern Wales. During the late twelfth century, the region was wracked by vicious interdynastic warring. In 1190, one of Gruffudd's grandsons, Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd (died 1195), was ejected from Anglesey apparently by the sons of his own brother, Cynan ab Owain Gwynedd (died 1174).

The thirteenth/fourteenth-century Brenhinedd y Saesson and the thirteenth/fourteenth-century Brut y Tywysogyon reveal that Ragnvaldr militarily supported Rhodri in his successful re-acquisition of Anglesey 3 years later.

Another mediaeval Welsh text, the fourteenth-century O Oes Gwrtheyrn Gwrtheneu, refers to the year 1193 as haf y Gwyddyl (the summer of the Gaels), which appears to
Ragnvaldr and Rhodri were also bound together by a marital alliance, as a papal letter, dated November 1199, indicates that an unnamed daughter of Ragnvaldr was betrothed to Rhodri.
Although the precise date of the marriage is unknown, Ragnvaldr's military support of Rhodri in 1193 was almost certainly related to it. Rhodri died in 1195, and the same papal letter indicates that his widow was arranged to marry his nephew, Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Prince of Gwynedd (died 1240). The arrangement appears to have taken place in the context of Llywelyn's consolidation in Gwynedd. Like his uncle, Llywelyn appears to have intended to establish an alliance with the Islesmen in order strengthen his position in Wales.
Although the arrangement may well evidence Ragnvaldr's power and influence in the region, Llywelyn clearly extricated himself from the arrangement in order to bind himself in marriage to a much stronger and more influential superpower, the English Crown.
Although certain correspondence with the papacy reveals that the marriage between Llywelyn and Ragnvaldr's daughter had received papal approval in April 1203, another letter shows that the ratification was reversed on a technicality in February 1205. This ruling was clearly one of convenience for Llywelyn, as the latter was by this time married to Joan (died 1237), an illegitimate daughter of John, King of England (died 1216).

This may have been about the time when Ragnvaldr himself first entered into what would be an enduring relationship with the English Crown.
There may be further evidence of Ragnvaldr's Welsh connections. According to several non-contemporary Welsh genealogical tracts, the mother of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales (died 1282) was an otherwise unknown daughter of Ragnvaldr named Rhanullt.
If correct, these sources could indicate that Llywelyn's father, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Fawr (died 1244) married a daughter of Ragnvaldr in about 1220. Contemporary sources, however, show that Llywelyn's mother was Senana, an undoubted wife of Gruffydd.
In yet another Welsh pedigree — one compiled by the herald and poet Lewys Dwnn (died 1616-) — Ragnvaldr is stated have had an otherwise unknown son named Hywel. Although the reliability of such late genealogical sources is suspect, Ragnvaldr's known dealings with leading Welsh dynasts could lend weight to the possibility that he had an otherwise unknown Welsh wife or concubine.

Ragnvaldr was also responsible for the Welsh translation of mediaeval texts dealing with Charlemagne and Roland. There are ten surviving manuscripts, dating no later than the seventeenth century, which preserve the thirteenth-century Cân Rolant, the Welsh version of La chanson de Roland. Along with the Welsh versions of the twelfth-century texts Historia Karoli Magni et Rotholandi and Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne, Cân Rolant comprises part of the Welsh Charlemagne cycle.
All but 1 of the 10 manuscripts contain a colophon noting that Ragnvaldr was responsible for the translation. The work appears to have taken place at some point after his accession, and possibly following the marriage of his daughter to Rhodri. The catalyst for the translations is uncertain. During the reign of his contemporary, Hákon Hákonarson, King of Norway (died 1263), many Anglo-Norman manuscripts were translated into Old Norse, including those that became the thirteenth-century Karlamagnús saga.
Historia Karoli Magni et Rotholandi and Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne appear to have been known in Scandinavia by the twelfth century, and it is possible that Ragnvaldr became familiar with them whilst in Norway, leading him to commission a translation of his own. On the other hand, he could have also become familiar with the tales whilst in England. Ragnvaldr's aforesaid familial links with the Welsh, and perhaps Cistercian connections between Mann and Wales, may account for his part in the translations into Welsh. The work itself was seemingly carried out at the Ceredigion monastery of Llanbadarn Fawr, once a centre of Welsh scholarship.

Although Ragnvaldr is completely ignored by the Irish annals, other historical sources indicate that he indeed had Irish connections. For example, Orkneyinga saga notes that, when he lent military support to William 1n Caithness, Ragnvaldr led a large army drawn from Ireland. Also linking Ragnvaldr to Ireland is Henry 3's summons to Ragnvaldr, dated 16 January 1218, commanding him to explain the excesses committed upon the people of our Lord the King, as well in England as in Ireland. Baile suthach síth Emhna also reveals connections with the island. Although the poem undoubtedly exaggerates Ragnvaldr's feats, its claims of devastating raids into Ireland may not be complete fantasy, as evidenced by the aforesaid summons.

The poem also alludes to Ragnvaldr's claim to kingship in Ireland, and appears to evince the prospect of seizing power in Dublin. Ragnvaldr's antecessors were certainly closely associated with the Norse-Gaelic Kingdom of Dublin. However, with the kingdom's collapse at the hands of English adventurers in 1170, and the ongoing entrenchment of the English throughout Ireland itself, the Crovan dynasty found itself surrounded by this threatening, rising new power in the Irish Sea zone. Despite the dynasty's original opposition to the English in Dublin, it did not take long to realign itself with this new power, as exemplified through a marital alliance between Ragnvaldr's sister, Affrica, and one of the most powerful incoming Englishmen, John de Courcy (died c. 1219).
In 1177, Courcy led an invasion of Ulaid (an area roughly encompassing what is today County Antrim and County Down). He reached Down (modern day Downpatrick), drove off Ruaidrí Mac Duinn Sléibe, King of Ulaid (died 1201), consolidated his conquest, and ruled his lands with a certain amount of independence for about a quarter of a century. Although the date of the marriage between Courcy and Affrica is uncertain, the union may well have attributed to his stunning successes in Ireland. The rulers of Ulaid and those of Mann had a bitter past-history between them, and it is possible that Courcy's marital alliance with the Crovan dynasty was the catalyst of his assault upon the Ulaid. In fact, Guðrøðr Óláfsson formalised his marriage to Findguala in 1176-1177, and thereby bound his dynasty with the Meic Lochlainn of Cenél nEógain, another traditional foe of the Ulaid. Courcy would have almost certainly attempted to use such alignments to his advantage, whilst Guðrøðr Óláfsson would have used Courcy's campaigning against the Ulaid as a means of settling old scores.

Courcy's fall from power occurred in a series of conflicts with the English Crown between 1201 and 1204. By 1205 he was forced from Ireland altogether, and his lands were awarded to Hugh de Lacy (died 1242). During Courcy's subsequent revolt within the year, he received military support from Ragnvaldr, his brother-in-law. The Chronicle of Mann specifies that Courcy's massive force was reinforced by Ragnvaldr with one hundred ships, and states that they laid siege to a certain castle of Roth, before being beaten back with the arrival of Walter de Lacy (died 1241).
The expedition is also recorded by the sixteenth-century Annals of Loch Cé, which states that Courcy brought a fleet from the Isles to battle the Lacys. Although the expedition ultimately proved a failure, the source indicates that the surrounding countryside was plundered and destroyed by the invaders. The identity of the castle named by the chronicle is almost certainly Dundrum Castle, which was possibly constructed by Courcy before 1203. The defeat of 1205 marks the downfall of Courcy, who never regained his Irish lands.

Ragnvaldr's involvement in Ireland, and his connection with Courcy, may have led to contact with the English kings John and Henry 3. In fact, Courcy's final downfall may have been somewhat of a relief to Ragnvaldr, since it meant that he was no longer caught between conflicting loyalties he would owe to both the English Crown and brother-in-law.

On 8 February 1205, the year of the aforesaid attack on Dundrum, John took Ragnvaldr under his protection. Exactly a year later, John issued Ragnvaldr safe conduct for fifteen days to come to England for Easter (22 April 1206). A further record dated 28 April reveals that Ragnvaldr rendered homage to John during this Easter sojourn, and states that the latter ordered the Sheriff of Lancaster to assign thirty marcates of land to Ragnvaldr. Accordingly, the Lancashire Pipe Rolls reveal that the sheriff associated twenty librates of land with Ragnvaldr during the year spanning Michaelmas 1205 and Michaelmas 1206. Since the rolls do not name any estate associated with Ragnvaldr, he does not appear to have been assigned any lands, but rather a charge upon the ferm of the county. On 29 April, John ordered his treasurer to pay thirty marks to Ragnvaldr.
About a year later, on 17 June 1207, John ordered the sheriff to assign Ragnvaldr with twenty liberates of land, a payment which is also confirmed by the Lancashire Pipe Rolls.

Ragnvaldr's increasing interaction with the English Crown after Courcy's fall suggests that the English king not only orchestrated Courcy's undoing, but purposely detached Ragnvaldr from the latter. Such an act not only considerably weakened Courcy, but lessened the chance of a Lacy counterstroke against Ragnvaldr that could potentially destabilise the Irish Sea region. In fact, the aforesaid collapse of Ragnvaldr's marital alliance with Llywelyn ap Iorwerth took place at about the same time, and it is possible that this breakup was masterminded by the English as well.

In 1210, the Chronicle of Mann reports that John led five hundred ships to Ireland. Whilst Ragnvaldr and his men were absent from Mann, part of John's forces are recorded to have landed and ravaged it for a fortnight before departing with hostages. There is does not appear to be any other evidence of possibly poor relations between Ragnvaldr and John at this time. Since the men were clearly on friendly terms between 1205 and 1207, John's assault on the island does not appear to connected to Ragnvaldr's earlier campaigning with (the then-disgraced) Courcy. Instead, it is likely that the devastation was related to John's souring relations with the Lacy and the Briouze families. In 1208, William de Briouze (died 1211), with his wife and family, fled from John to Ireland, where they were harboured by the Lacys. When John arrived in Ireland in 1210, the Briouzes fled towards Scotland, and were apprehended in Galloway by Courcy's close associate and Ragnvaldr's kinsman Donnchad mac Gilla Brigte, Earl of Carrick (died 1250).

A link between the flight of the Briouzes and Ragnvaldr appears in the thirteenth-century Histoire des ducs de Normandie et des rois d'Angleterre, which states that, whilst en route to Scotland just before their capture, the Briouzes stayed on Mann for four days. Although it is impossible to know for certain whether Ragnvaldr sanctioned the arrival of the fleeing Briouzes, their close connection with the Lacys, and Ragnvaldr's close connection with Courcy — a man who had been forced from his Irish lands by the Lacys — both strongly suggest that cooperation between Ragnvaldr and Briouze is unlikely. Whatever the case, English depredations on Mann are corroborated by other sources, such as the Annals of Loch Cé, and the continuation of William de Newburgh's (died 1198-) Historia rerum Anglicarum. In his own account of events, John declared that he had learned of the capture of Briouze's wife and children whilst at Carrickfergus, a statement which may hint that the attack on Mann was punitive in nature.

If the attack was indeed a case of retaliation it may not have been due to Ragnvaldr's own involvement with enemies of the English Crown. The fleeing Briouzes were also accompanied by Hugh himself, but unlike them he managed to elude capture, and was temporarily harboured in Scotland by Ailín 2, Earl of Lennox (died 1217). The Lacys' previous connections with Dublin and Ulster suggest that Hugh may have had supporters on Mann. In fact, his stay-over in Ragnvaldr's absence may have been enabled due to the fraternal discord between Ragnvaldr and Óláfr.

Occupation:
In the years between the death of Magnús Óláfsson, King of Norway (died 1103) and the reign of Hákon, Norwegian power in the Isles was negligible due to an ongoing civil war in Norway In the mid twelfth century, however, during his visit to Norway, Ragnvaldr's father appears to have become a vassal of Ingi Haraldsson, King of Norway (died 1161) Certainly the twelfth-century Norman chronicler Robert de Torigni, Abbot of Mont Saint-Michel (died 1186) reported a mid-century meeting between Henry 2, King of England (died 1189), William, and the Bishop of the Isles, where it was stated that the kings of the Isles were obliged to pay the kings of Norway ten marks of gold upon the latter's accession.

Whilst bound to the English Crown in 1210, Ragnvaldr appears to have found himself the target of renewed Norwegian hegemony in the Isles.
Specifically, the Icelandic annals reveal that a military expedition from Norway to the Isles was in preparation in 1209. The following year, the same source notes warfare in the Isles, and reveals that Iona was pillaged. These reports are corroborated by B?glunga s?gur, a thirteenth-century saga-collection that survives in 2 versions. Both versions reveal that a fleet of Norwegians plundered in the Isles, and the shorter version notes how men of the Birkibeinar and the Baglar — 2 competing sides of the Norwegian civil war — decided to recoup their financial losses with a twelve-ship raiding expedition into the Isles.
The longer version states that Ragnwald (styled Konge aff Möen i Syderö) and Gudroder (styled Konge paa Manö) had not paid their taxes due to the Norwegian kings. In consequence, the source records that the Isles were ravaged until the two travelled to Norway and reconciled themselves with Ingi Bárðarson, King of Norway (died 1217), whereupon the two took their lands from Ingi as a lén (or fief).

The aforesaid kings of B?glunga s?gur almost most likely represent Ragnvaldr and his son, Guðrøðr Dond (died 1231). The skattr (or tax) that Ragnvaldr and his son rendered to Ingi appears to be the same tribute that Robert noted in his aforesaid account. The submission of the Islesmen appears to have been undertaken in the context of the strengthening position of the Norwegian Crown following the settlement between the Birkibeinar and Baglar, and the simultaneous weakening of the Crovan dynasty due to internal infighting. The destructive Norse activity in the Isles may have been some sort of officially sanctioned punishment from Norway due to Ragnvaldr's recalcitrance in terms of, not only his Norwegian obligations, but his recent reorientation towards the English Crown. The fact that Ingi turned his attention to the Isles so soon after peace was brokered in Norway may well indicate the importance that he placed on his relations with Ragnvaldr and his contemporaries in the Isles.

Ragnvaldr may have also used his journey as a means to safeguard the kingship against the claims of Óláfr. His presence there may explain his absence from Mann during the aforesaid ravaging of the island by the English. In fact, Ragnvaldr's submission to Ingi could have been contributed to the English attack, as it may have given the English an incentive to devastate Ragnvaldr's lands because he had bound himself to John only a few years previous. Although John had originally installed Hugh as Earl of Ulster, he proceeded to dismantle the lordship after Hugh gave refuge to the Briouzes. The ravaging of Mann, therefore, may have been a further demonstration of English royal power directed at a disloyal vassal. If this was indeed the case, Ragnvaldr's submission to the Norwegian Crown—although apparently undertaken to safeguard his kingdom—clearly resulted in severe repercussions.

Numerous sources reveal that, in the years following the aforesaid ravaging of Mann and plundering of the Isles, Ragnvaldr bound himself closer to the English Crown. Whilst at Lambeth on 16 May 1212, for instance, during what was likely his second visit to England in six years, Ragnvaldr formally swore that he was John's liegeman. Ragnvaldr's visit to England is corroborated by a record, dated 20 May, regarding the English Crown's payment of ten marks for conducting Ragnvaldr home. Further corroboration is provided by the record, dated 16 May, concerning the release of some of Ragnvaldr's men who had been held in custody at Porchester and Dover.

In another record, also dated 16 May, John authorised his seneschals, governors, and bailiffs in Ireland to come to Ragnvaldr's aid in the event that his territory was threatened by Wikini or others, since Ragnvaldr had bound himself to do the same against John's own enemies. The record of Wikini or Vikings in this order may refer to the Norwegian raiders, like those who plundered the Isles in 1210. This particular source reveals that, not only was Ragnvaldr protected by John, but that he was also obligated to defend John's interests in the Irish Sea region.

Yet another transaction dated 16 May, in return for the homage and service that he rendered to the English Crown, Ragnvaldr and his heirs received a grant consisting of one knight's fee of land at Carlingford, and one hundred measures of corn to be paid yearly at Drogheda for the service of a knight. The grant gave Ragnvaldr a valuable foothold in Ireland, and provided his powerful galley-fleet with an additional safe haven. The precise location of the territory granted to Ragnvaldr is unrecorded and unknown. Carlingford had until recently been a power centre of the aforesaid Hugh, and Ragnvaldr's grant may fit into the context of filling the power vacuum following the destruction of the Lacy lordship.

Ragnvaldr's gifts from the English Crown may fit into the context of John attempting to offset interference from the Philip Augustus, King of France (died 1223). At about this time, the French Crown had orchestrated a Franco-Welsh alliance in an attempt to divert the English to deal with a Welsh uprising rather than focus their forces upon the Continent and France in particular. In fact, there is evidence that Norman ships were active off Wales in 1210. Although John had come to terms with Llywelyn ap Iorwerth in 1211, the following year the latter formed a concord with Philip.
By May 1212, John succeeded in gaining the support of several foreign lords, such as the counts of Bar, Boulogne, and Flanders, the dukes of Brabant and Limburg, the Holy Roman Emperor, and Ragnvaldr himself. Despite these overtures, however, the Welsh uprisings of 1211 and 1212, as well as an English revolt in 1212, all succeeded in keeping English forces from invading France.

As a consequence of Ragnvaldr's vassalage to the English Crown, and his role as guardian of the English seaways, it is probable that Islesmen were involved in far fewer predatory actions along the English and Irish coasts. At about the same time, several south-western Scottish magnates received grants in the north of Ireland. These included three of Ragnvaldr's Meic Fergusa kinsmen: Alan fitz Roland, Lord of Galloway (died 1234), Alan's brother Thomas fitz Roland, Earl of Atholl (died 1231), and Donnchad. Such grants appear to have been part of a coordinated campaign of the English and Scottish kings to gain authority over outlying territories where royal influence was limited.

A record dated 3 January 1214 appears to confirm the English Crown's intentions of protecting the Islesmen, as it prohibits certain mariners of Ireland from entering Ragnvaldr's territories at his loss. The English pledges of protection of Ragnvaldr and his Irish holdings suggest that he was under immediate pressure at this period. It is possible, therefore, that the 1211-1212 seaborne devastation of Derry by Thomas fitz Roland, and the unnamed sons of Ragnall—apparently Ruaidrí (died 1247?) and Domnall—was undertaken in support of Ragnvaldr's interests in Ireland.
In fact, Thomas fitz Roland and Ruaidrí ransacked Derry again in 1213-1214, and it is also possible that the raids were conducted in the interests of both the Scottish and English Crowns, and specifically aimed at limiting Irish support of the Meic Uilleim dissidents. If these attacks were indeed directed against political enemies of the Scottish and English Crowns, it is not improbable that Ragnvaldr and his forces were also involved.

John died in October 1216, and was succeeded by his young son, Henry 3. The English summons of Ragnvaldr, dated 16 January 1218, in which he was ordered to amend certain excesses committed upon Henry 3's men in Ireland and England, could be evidence that Islesmen took advantage of the somewhat fractured English realm by plundering the coasts of England and Ireland. If this was indeed the case, there is no further evidence of any such depredations.
Later in May, the English Crown commanded that Ragnvaldr was to be given safe passage to England in order account for the aforesaid misconduct of his men.

Whether Ragnvaldr actually travelled there that year is unknown, although various records reveal that he certainly did so the following year. For example, he was granted safe passage by the English Crown on 24 September 1219. Evidence of Ragnvaldr's activity in England survives in references of homage rendered to Henry 3. One such record shows that, in late September, Ragnvaldr rendered homage to Henry 3, and received the same fief that John had given him.
In another record of his homage the English Crown added the qualification: But if our enemies, or his, shall rebel against us, and him, to the loss of our or his land, then you are to be earnest in your help, for the defence of our land and of his, to our safety and convenience, so long as he shall keep himself faithful towards us.
Therefore, whatever excesses Ragnvaldr's men had committed in the past, the surviving evidence reveals that by 1219 he was again amicably allied to the English king.

In the autumn of 1219, whilst in London at the Temple Church, Ragnvaldr surrendered Mann to the papacy, swore to perform homage for the island, and promised to pay 12 marks sterling in perpetuity as tribute. Ragnvaldr's submission was accepted, on behalf of Pope Honorius 3 (died 1227), by the papal legate to England, Pandulf, Bishop-elect of Norwich (died 1226). Such a submission was not unprecedented at the time. For example, John had surrendered his kingdom to the papacy through Pandulf about six years beforehand, whilst facing not only a major crisis from within his own realm, but an imminent invasion by Louis 8, King of France (died 1226) from without.

The precise impetus behind Ragnvaldr's submission is uncertain, although it may well have been related to the threat of ever-strengthening Norwegian kingship. Certainly Hákon had only acceded to the Norwegian kingship two years previously, and by the early part of his reign the civil warring within his realm began to wane.
In his submission, Ragnvaldr stated that the kingdom was his by hereditary right, and that he held it without any obligation to anyone. This contradicts the aforesaid statement by B?glunga s?gur, which declare that he and his son swore loyalty to Hákon and took his kingdom in fief of the latter.
The submission, therefore, may have been a means by which Ragnvaldr attempted to release himself from Norwegian overlordship. Furthermore, a royal order addressed to Henry 3's administrators in Ireland, dated 4 November 1220, commanded Henry 3's men to render military aid to Ragnvaldr, since the latter had provided evidence that Hákon was plotting to invade his island-kingdom.
Not long after this enlistment of English support, the Annals of Loch Cé and the seventeenth-century Annals of the Four Masters report the death of Diarmait Ua Conchobair at the hands of Thomas fitz Roland in 1221. These sources state that Diarmait was in the process of assembling a fleet in the Isles to reclaim the kingship of Connacht.
There is a possibility, however, that his actions in the Isles were connected to the aforesaid Norwegian threat feared by Ragnvaldr. In fact, Diarmait's kinsman, Áed na nGall Ua Conchobair (died 1274), appears to have attempted the procurement of Hákon's assistance at a later date.

Ragnvaldr's papal submission may have also been linked to his feud with Óláfr. For example, in the last hours of his life, John appealed to Pope Innocent 3 (died 1216) to ensure the succession of his young son, Henry 3.
Although the chronology of Ragnvaldr and Óláfr's feud is not entirely clear, the hostilities which entangled Ragnvaldr's son broke out in the 1220s. Ragnvaldr, therefore, may have intended to secure, not only his own kingship, but also the future succession of his son.
Whatever the case, it is unknown how well Ragnvaldr kept his obligations to the papacy. The limited surviving evidence of communications between Mann and Rome appear to show that his commitments were not taken up by his successors.
Nevertheless, centuries after his death, Ragnvaldr's deal with the papacy was commemorated by a fresco in the Vatican Archives.

Upon Óláfr's return from his pilgrimage, the Chronicle of Mann records that Ragnvaldr had him marry Lauon, the sister of his own wife. Ragnvaldr then granted Lewis and Harris back to Óláfr, where the newly-weds proceeded to live until the arrival of Reginaldus, Bishop of the Isles (died c. 1226). The chronicle claims that the bishop disapproved of the marriage on the grounds that Óláfr had formerly had a concubine who was a cousin of Lauon. A synod was then assembled, after which the marriage is stated to have been nullified.
Although the chronicle alleges that Óláfr's marriage was doomed for being within a prohibited degree of kinship, there is evidence to suggest that the real reason for its demise was the animosity between the half-brothers. For example, Reginaldus and Óláfr appear to have been closely associated, as the chronicle notes that, not only was Reginaldus was a son of Óláfr's sister, but that Óláfr had warmly greeted Reginaldus when the latter arrived on Lewis and Harris.
Furthermore, it was Reginaldus who had instigated the annulment. In fact, after the previous Bishop of the Isles died in 1217, Reginaldus and Nicholas de Meaux, Abbot of Furness (died 1217) had vied for the office of bishop. Whilst Reginaldus appears to have enjoyed the support of Óláfr, Ragnvaldr appears to have supported the bid of Reginaldus' rival, Nicholas.

The precise identity of the half-brothers' shared father-in-law is uncertain. The chronicle describes him as a nobleman from Kintyre, which suggests that he was a member of the Meic Somairle, since sources concerning this kindred link them with Kintyre more than any other region. The father-in-law, therefore, may well have been Ragnvaldr's aforesaid first cousin Ragnall, or Ragnall's son Ruaidrí — both of whom appear to have been styled Lord of Kintyre in contemporary sources — or possibly Ragnall's younger son, Domnall. It is conceivable that the first union was undertaken before 1210,[289] perhaps not long after 1200 considering the age of Guðrøðr Dond, Ragnvaldr's aforesaid son.

The unions themselves appear to have been orchestrated in an effort to patch up relations between the Meic Somairle and the Crovan dynasty, neighbouring kindreds who had bitterly contested the kingship of the Isles for about sixty years.
In fact, it is possible that Ragnvaldr's kingship was formally recognised by Ruaidrí, the apparent leading Meic Somairle dynast since Áengus' death in 1210, who thereby established himself as a leading magnate within a reunified Kingdom of the Isles.
Since the majority of Ruaidrí's territories appear to have been mainland possessions, it is very likely that the Scottish Crown regarded this reunification as a threat to its own claims of overlordship of Argyll. In fact, it is possible that the Scots' aforesaid release of Óláfr in 1214 was intended to cause dynastic discord in the Isles. If that was indeed the case, then the Scottish Crown's machinations had temporarily come to nought because of Óláfr's reconciliation and arraigned marriage.

Once freed from his arranged marriage, the Chronicle of Mann states that Óláfr proceeded to marry Cristina, daughter of Ferchar, Earl of Ross (died c. 1251).
The latter emerges from historical obscurity in 1215; and by the mid 1220s, about the time of the Cristina and Óláfr's marriage, Ferchar was rewarded with the Earldom of Ross for remarkable services to the Scottish Crown.
As for Óláfr, control of the Skye and Lewis and Harris island groups—archipelagos that bordered the expansive territory of the Meic Somairle—could well have made himself a valuable potential ally of the Scottish Crown.
In fact, the collapse of Óláfr's previous Meic Somairle marriage took place at about the time that Ruaidrí was seemingly ejected from Kintyre by the forces of Alexander 2, King of Scotland (died 1249) in 1221–1222. Óláfr's subsequent realignment with Ferchar—Alexander's protégé—not only appears to evince Óláfr's recognition of the shift of power in north-western Scotland,[296] but may also signal Ragnvaldr's loss of support from the Scottish Crown.

If the chronicle is to be believed, Óláfr's separation from Lauon enraged her sister, who surreptitiously tricked her son, Guðrøðr Dond, into attacking Óláfr. Following what he thought were his father's orders, Guðrøðr Dond gathered a force on Skye and proceeded to Lewis and Harris, where the chronicle records that he laid waste to most of the island. Óláfr is said to have only narrowly escaped with a few men, and to have fled to the protection of his father-in-law on the mainland in Ross. Óláfr is stated to have been followed into exile by Páll Bálkason (died 1231), a sheriff on Skye who refused to take up arms against Óláfr.
The chronicle then indicates that the two landed on Skye, and learned where Guðrøðr Dond was stationed, and defeated him in battle. The latter's captured followers were put to death, whilst Guðrøðr Dond himself was blinded and castrated. Although the chronicle maintains that Óláfr was unable to prevent this torture, the Icelandic annals record that Óláfr was indeed responsible for his nephew's plight.

The vicious mutilation and killing of high status kinsmen during power-struggles was not an unknown phenomenon in the peripheral-regions of the British Isles during the High Middle Ages. In fact, in only the century-and-a-half of its existence, at least nine members of the Crovan dynasty perished from mutilation or assassination.
In fact, Guðrøðr Dond's plight may well have been used as a means to reveal that Óláfr intended to wrest his perceived birthright from Ragnvaldr's bloodline. It is unknown why Ragnvaldr had not neutralised Óláfr the same way when he had the chance years before in 1208, although it may have had something to do with international relations. For example, it is possible that his act of showing leniency to Óláfr had garnered Scottish support against the aforesaid threat of Norwegian overlordship.[290] Whatever the case, the neutralisation of Guðrøðr Dond appears to mark a turning point in the struggle between the Óláfr and Ragnvaldr.

Roughly about this point in time, correspondence between Joan, Queen of Scotland (died 1238) and her brother, Henry 3, reveals that the Norwegian Crown was rumoured to have been planning a naval expedition west over sea. Although Joan's letter places this campaign in the context of a threat to English interests in Ireland, it may be more likely that Hákon's attention was focused upon the escalating situation in the Isles.
One possibility is that the queen's correspondence is evidence that Óláfr had appealed to Hákon for supported against Ragnvaldr.

The aforesaid kin-strife largely took place on Skye and Lewis and Harris, islands that were clearly important within the kingdom.
In fact, there is evidence to suggest that the kingdom's northern territories were granted by reigning kings to their heir-apparent. For example, during the eleventh-century reign of the dynasty's founder, Guðrøðr Crovan, the northern portion of his realm may have been governed by his son, L?gmaðr. Ragnvaldr's grant of Lewis and Harris to Óláfr, therefore, may indicate that Óláfr was then regarded as Ragnvaldr's rightful successor.
Furthermore, the fact that Ragnvaldr was residing in the Hebrides when his father died in 1187 may indicate that, despite the chronicle's claims to the contrary, Ragnvaldr was indeed the rightful heir to the kingship. Additionally, since Ragnvaldr's son is recorded on Skye, the possibility exists that he resided there as heir-apparent. This could indicate that portions of the Hebrides were allotted to members of the dynasty who were passed-over for the kingship.
In any event, it is apparent that such territorial fragmentation would have severely weakened the realm.

The ecclesiastical jurisdiction within Ragnvaldr's realm was the far-flung Diocese of the Isles. Like the Kingdom of the Isles itself, the origins of the diocese may well lie with the Uí Ímair imperium.
In the mid twelfth century, during the reign of Ragnvaldr's father, the diocese came to be incorporated into the newly established Norwegian Archdiocese of Niðaróss.
In effect, the political reality of the Diocese of the Isles—its territorial borders and nominal subjection to Norway—appears to have mirrored that of the Kingdom of the Isles.
Before the close of the twelfth century, however, evidence of a new ecclesiastical jurisdiction—the Diocese of Argyll—begins to emerge during ongoing contentions between the Meic Somairle and the Crovan dynasty.

In the early 1190s, the Chronicle of Mann reveals that Cristinus, Bishop of the Isles, an Argyllman who was probably a Meic Somairle candidate, was deposed and replaced by Michael (died 1203), a Manxman who appears to have been backed by Ragnvaldr.
The tenure of Cristinus seems to have spanned at least two decades during a sustained period of Meic Somairle power in the Isles. His downfall, however, came about at the time of the Crovan dynasty's resurgence under the then-recently enthroned Ragnvaldr.

After Michael's death in 1203, a certain Koli is recorded to have been consecrated in 1210. The situation between this span of years is uncertain.
On one hand, it is possible that the see was vacant between these years. On the other hand, Koli could have been elected bishop in 1203, but only consecrated in 1210. Another possibility is that the see was administered from Lismore—the future seat of the Diocese of Argyll—under the ultimate authority of Áengus, the aforementioned Meic Somairle dynast slain in 1210.
There is also a possibility that Koli's consecration was connected to the aforesaid attack on Iona in 1209-1210.
Not only does the Norwegian expedition appear to have compelled Ragnvaldr and his son to submit to the Norwegian Crown in 1210, but it also made landfall in Orkney, and brought back to Norway the joint Orcadian earls and their bishop. The entire undertaking, therefore, may have been designed to reassert Norwegian overlordship over both secular and ecclesiastical authorities in Norwegian satellites overseas.
If correct, the voyage would seem to have been orchestrated by both Ingi and his chief prelate, Þórir Guðmundarson, Archbishop of Niðaróss (died 1214). Although the Meic Somairle controversially refounded Iona at the turn of the century, and further secured its independence from the Diocese of the Isles by placing it under the protection of the papacy, the Norwegian sack of the island may not have been a sanctioned act One possibility is that a visit to the island by the Norwegian delegation disastrously deteriorated into otherwise unplanned violence.

The next bishop after Koli was the aforesaid Reginaldus. Although Reginaldus' aforesaid rival for the episcopate, Nicholas, is recorded to have gained the support of the communities of Furness and Rushen, he does not appear to have ever occupied the see.
In fact, Nicholas appears to have spent much of his time in Rome, since correspondence from the papacy to Walter de Gray, Archbishop of York (died 1255), concerning Nicholas' final resignation, states that the latter had long been exiled from his see because the lord of the land and others were altogether opposed to him.
As early as November 1219, papal correspondence reveals that the pope had urged the leading men of the Isles to accept Nicholas' episcopacy.

Ragnvaldr's remarkably warm relations with the papacy, and his deteriorating relationship with Óláfr, could be evidence that the papal correspondence in support of Nicholas was directed at Óláfr instead of Ragnvaldr. Further indication of Ragnvaldr's support of Nicholas may be his renewal of the rights of Furness Abbey to elect the Bishop of the Isles.
The English Crown's aforesaid warning to Óláfr about harming the monks of Furness could betray some sort of grievance with the community, whilst Ragnvaldr's burial at Furness appears show evidence his own affinity with the community. The controversy over the appointment of bishops, therefore, appears to have been yet another aspect of ongoing kin-strife within the Crovan dynasty. In fact, the final resignation of Nicholas in 1224 corresponds to the realignment of the kingdom between Ragnvaldr and Óláfr, and the whole dispute coincides with the Óláfr's gradual successes against Ragnvaldr.
Whatever the case, Reginaldus' successor was a man named John who apparently died in an accident not long afterwards. The next bishop was Simon (died 1248), a man consecrated in 1226 by the Archbishop of Niðaróss, and whose tenure outlived both Ragnvaldr and Óláfr.

In 1224, the year following the aforesaid defeat of Ragnvaldr's son, the chronicle reveals that Óláfr took hostages from the leading men of the Hebridean portion of the realm, and with a fleet of 32 ships, landed on Mann at Ronaldsway, where he confronted Ragnvaldr directly. It was then agreed that the kingdom would be split between the 2; with Ragnvaldr keeping Mann itself along with the title of king, and Óláfr retaining the Hebridean portion.
With Óláfr's rise at Ragnvaldr expense, the latter turned to Alan, one of Scotland's most powerful magnates.

Alan and Ragnvaldr were certainly closely connected. Both were great-grandsons of Fergus, Lord of Galloway (died 1161);[348]both had received Ulster lands from the English at about the same time; and it is possible that connections between the Isles and Galloway had led to Ragnvaldr's aforesaid involvement with the Scottish Crown in Caithness.
Whatever the case, in a letter from Alan to Henry 3, dated the year of the partitioning between the half-brothers, Alan mentioned that he was preoccupied with his army and fleet, travelling from island to island. This statement may well evince the beginning of the joint military operations, conducted by Alan and Ragnvaldr against Óláfr, assigned by the chronicle to the following year. According to the latter source, however, the campaigning came to nought because the Manx were unwilling to battle against Óláfr and the Hebrideans.

According to the thirteenth-century Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, 1224 was also the year in which Hákon was visited by Gillikristr, Óttar Snækollsson, and many Islesmen, who presented the king with letters concerning certain needs of their lands.
If these so-called needs refer to the bitter conflict between Ragnvaldr and Óláfr, it is possible that the visiting men were representatives of either man, or perhaps neutral chieftains caught in the middle.
Another factor may have been fears of Scottish aggression, in the aftermath of the aforesaid invasion of Kintyre, that unnerved the Islesmen. Further attempts to quell the infighting by way of the Norwegian Crown may have been undertaken in 1226, when the aforesaid Simon was consecrated in Norway.

A short time later, perhaps in about 1225 or 1226, the chronicle reveals that Ragnvaldr oversaw the marriage of a daughter of his to Alan's young illegitimate son, Thomas (died 1296-). Unfortunately for Ragnvaldr, this marital alliance appears to have cost him the kingship, since the chronicle records that the Manxmen had him removed from power and replaced with Óláfr.
The recorded resentment of the union could indicate that Alan's son was intended to eventually succeed Ragnvaldr, who was perhaps about sixty years-old at the time, and whose grandchildren were still very young.
In fact, it is possible that, in light of Ragnvaldr's advanced age and his son's mutilation, a significant number of the Islesmen regarded Óláfr as the rightful heir. Such a view could well account for the lack of enthusiasm the Manxmen had for Alan and Ragnvaldr's campaign into the Hebrides.
Since Thomas was likely little more than a teenager at the time probably meant that it was obvious to observers that Alan was the one who would hold the real power in the kingdom.
From the perspective of the Scottish Crown, it is conceivable that Alan's ambitions in the Isles were encouraged since the prospect of his son on the throne had the potential to further extend and strengthen Scottish royal authority along the western seaboard, and bring stability to the war-torn region.
As for Alan—a man who faced the probability that Galloway would be partitioned between his legitimate daughters on his eventual death—the marital alliance may have been conducted as a means to ensure a power base for Thomas, whose illegitimacy threatened to exclude him from inheriting his father's domain under the feudal laws of the English and Scottish realms.

At this low point of his career, the deposed Ragnvaldr appears to have gone into exile at Alan's court in Galloway.
In 1228, whilst Óláfr and his chieftains were absent in Hebrides, the chronicle records of an invasion of Mann by Ragnvaldr, Alan, and Thomas fitz Roland. The attack appears to have resulted in the complete devastation of the southern half of the island, since the chronicle declares that it was almost reduced to a desert.
The chronicle's report that Alan installed bailiffs on Mann, with instructions to collect tribute from the island and send it back to Galloway, may reveal the price Ragnvaldr had to pay for Alan's support in the affair.
In fact, Ragnvaldr's role in the takeover is unrecorded. Suffering serious setbacks at the hands of his enemies, Óláfr reached out for English assistance against his half-brother, as evidenced from the aforesaid correspondence dating to the same year, between Henry 3 and Óláfr, in which the latter alluded to aggression dealt from Alan.
Eventually, after Alan vacated Mann for home, Óláfr and his forces reappeared on the island, and routed the remaining Gallovidians; and thus, the chronicle declares, peace was restored to Mann.

In the same year, English records reveal that Henry 3 attempted to broker a peace between the half-brothers, and gave Óláfr safe passage to England. This correspondence may have led to Óláfr's temporary absence from Mann that year. It could also roughly mark the point when Ragnvaldr finally lost English support.
Although the English Crown technically recognised Óláfr's kingship in correspondence sent to him the year before, the aggressive tone directed at him suggests that the preferred dynast may well have Ragnvaldr at that point in time.

In what was likely early January 1229, the chronicle records that Ragnvaldr caught the forces of Óláfr unaware, as Ragnvaldr sailed from Galloway with five ships, and launched a nocturnal raid upon the harbour at St Patrick's Isle, near what is today the town of Peel. During this daring assault, the chronicle records that Ragnvaldr had all of the ships of Óláfr and his chieftains destroyed. Although the chronicle's description of the attack alludes to Gallovidian involvement, as it states that the expedition originated from Galloway, the fact that Ragnvaldr commanded only five ships suggests that this support may have been waning. This does not necessary indicate that Alan abandoned Ragnvaldr's cause, however, as Alan may well have been engaged in campaigning against the ongoing Meic Uilleim insurrection against the Scottish Crown. Even if this was the case, Ragnvaldr may have also considered Alan's involvement a detriment at this stage.

Ragnvaldr followed up on his assault by establishing himself in the southern part of Mann, as the chronicle records that he won over the support of the southerners. Meanwhile, Óláfr is stated to have assembled his forces in the north of Mann, indicating that the island was divided between the two men for much of January and February, before what would be their final confrontation. According to the chronicle, Ragnvaldr and Óláfr led their armies to Tynwald.
The derivation of this place name—from the Old Norse elements þing (assembly) and vallr (field, meadow) —reveals that it was an assembly site, which in turn suggests that negotiations may have been intended.

On 14 February, the festival of St Valentine, the chronicle records that Óláfr's forces launched an attack upon Ragnvaldr at Tynwald, where Ragnvaldr's troops were routed and he himself was slain.
Ragnvaldr's fall is laconically corroborated by the Icelandic annals.
Other sources appear to suggest that his death was due to treachery. The fourteenth-century Chronicle of Lanercost, for example, states that Ragnvaldr fell a victim to the arms of the wicked; whilst the Chronicle of Mann states that, although Óláfr grieved at his half-brother's death, he never exacted vengeance upon his killers.
The chronicle states that the monks of Rushen took Ragnvaldr's body to St Mary's Abbey, Furness, where he was buried in a place that he had chosen beforehand.
A particular sandstone effigy of an armed, mail-clad warrior, found in the north aisle of the abbey, has been associated with Ragnvaldr since the first half of the nineteenth century. Such an association, however, is dubious at best.

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Bef 1237, Isle of Man, England; King of the Isles.

Notes:

Occupation:
Óláfr Guðrøðarson commonly known in English as Olaf the Black, was a mid 13th century sea-king who ruled the Isle of Man (Mann) and parts of the Hebrides. Óláfr was the son of Guðrøðr Óláfsson, King of the Isles, King of Dublin, and his wife Finnguala, granddaughter of Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, High King of Ireland, King of Cenél nEógain.

According to the Chronicle of Mann, Guðrøðr appointed Óláfr as heir since he had been born in lawful wedlock. Whether or not this is the case, on Guðrøðr's death in 1187 the Manxmen instead appointed Ragnvaldr as king, as he was a capable adult and Óláfr was a mere child.

Ragnvaldr ruled the Crovan dynasty's island-kingdom for almost 40 years, during which time the half-brothers vied for the kingship.

At one point Óláfr, who had been given possession of Lewis, complained to Rögnvaldr that his lands were not enough. Ragnvaldr's response was seize Óláfr and send him to the King of Scots, where he was imprisoned for almost 7 years.

Upon his release, Óláfr undertook a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, after which the half-brothers were reconciled and Rögnvaldr had Óláfr married to Lauon, the sister of his own wife. Sometime after 1217 this marriage was nullified by Reginald, Bishop of the Isles, who may have been an ally of Óláfr against Rögnvaldr. Óláfr then married Christina, a daughter of the King of Scots' protégé Ferchar, Earl of Ross.

The chronicle claims that Ragnvaldr's bitter wife tricked their own son, Guðrøðr, into attempting to kill Óláfr; however, Óláfr narrowly escaped with his life and fled to the protection of his father-in-law on the mainland. Together with a loyal follower, one Páll Bálkason, Óláfr later defeated Guðrøðr on Skye.

In the 1220s Rögnvaldr formed an alliance with Alan, Lord of Galloway, in an attempt to fend off Óláfr. Ragnvaldr married his daughter to one of Alan's sons, and it has been theorised that this son was intended to inherit the island-kingdom. Rögnvaldr's actions enraged the Manxmen and in 1226 they deposed him in favour of Óláfr. Ragnvaldr was later killed battling Óláfr in 1229.

In 1230 Óláfr fled to Norway to seek military assistance against Alan and members of Clann Somairle. The Norwegian king's response was to send a fleet into the Isles under the command of Óspakr-Hákon, a member of Clann Somairle. Óspakr-Hákon was slain early in the campaign, after which Óláfr took control of the fleet and secured himself on Mann. The island-kingdom was divided between him and his mutilated nephew Guðrøðr, with the latter ruling the Hebridean portion and Óláfr ruling Mann itself.

Guðrøðr was soon after killed on Lewis, and Óláfr ruled the whole Kingdom of Mann and the Isles peacefully, until his death in 1237.

Óláfr's restoration on Mann was seen as a success by the Norwegians, and likely favourably viewed by the Scots as well; since the internal struggle between him and his rivals had been brought to an end.

Óláfr was succeeded by his son, Haraldr. In all, 3 of Óláfr's sons ruled the Crovan dynasty's island-kingdom — the last of which, Magnús Óláfsson, was also the last of the dynasty to rule.

Óláfr is known to have been survived by 3 children; Haraldr (d. 1248), Ragnvaldr (d. 1249), and Magnús (d. 1265) — all of whom ruled as kings in their own right. Although the mother of Óláfr's children is not known for certain, she is thought to have been Christina. The Chronicle of Mann states that Óláfr's immediate successor, Haraldr, was only 14 years old at the time of his father's death, which dates his birth to about the time of the marriage of Óláfr and Christina.

There is evidence to suggest that Óláfr might have had a fourth son named Guðrøðr. For example, the chronicle relates how the governor of Mann, described as a kinsman of Haraldr, fled from the king in 1238 and set sail for Wales, taking with him his foster-son Guðrøðr Óláfsson. When the fleeing ship reached the Welsh coast it was wrecked and, according to the chronicle, Guðrøðr perished on board.
Furthermore, amongst the names of witnesses within a quitclaim between Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (d. 1282) and Ralph de Mortimer (d. 1246), thought to date to about 1241, there is a certain Guðrøðr who appears in Latin as Godredo filio regis Mannie (Guðrøðr, son of the King of Mann).
Although the possibility has been raised that the two sources may refer to the same man, there is no further evidence to confirm it.

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]