| Clear Frames Click here |
This name Ysland, has been construed by some interpreters as being a blunder for "Ireland," which, however, is not very probable, Ireland being throughout the whole book always styled Ybernia. He found it on the island at his coming, left it where he found it, and gave it a voice in the government. He established a Tynwald Court, equivalent to the Icelandic All Moot, where Church and State sat together. Then he appointed two law-men, called Deemsters, one for the north and the other for the south. Finally, he caused to be built an artificial Mount of Laws, similar in its features to the Icelandic Logberg at Thingvellir. Such was the machinery of the Norse Constitution which King Orry established in Man. The House of Keys, the people's delegates, discussed all questions of interest to the people, and sent up its desires to the Tynwald Court. This assembly of people and Church in joint session assented, and the desires of the people became Acts of Tynwald.
The great Norwegian invasion, which lasted from the end of the eighth to the middle of the ninth century, and caused the erection of Norwegian kingdoms in Ireland, comprised also the islands between Ireland and Scotland, and these were even more completely subdued and subjected to the Norwegian rule than any part of Ireland itself. Indeed, the Island of Man, and the southernmost islands west of Scotland, are to be regarded as the centre of the Norwegian settlements in these parts of Europe. From these islands, eminently fitted to serve as a stronghold for these hardy Vikings, whose strength consisted almost entirely in their large and well constructed ships, the tide of invasion flowed to the west, to the north, to the east, and passing through Cumberland and the territory of the Strath-Clyde Britons it even reached to the eastern parts of Britain, where it met with another current from the North, that of the Danes, with which it easily coalesced, although traces are not wanting of their early encounters in a manner far from friendly. Man, as well as the rest of the islands, seems for the first period either to have been subjected to the Norwegian kings of Dublin, or to have been ruled by several chieftains or vikings, who did not adopt the title of kings.
The Chronicles of Man, or the entries belonging to the history of this kingdom, only commence with the yeare 1066 (1047). The first lines touching the death of King Edward the Confessor are still due to the Chronica de Mailros, the rest, however, is original. Here, therefore, Camden has also commenced his abridgment. The first King of Man here mentioned, viz. Gødred son of Sytric, is not, however, the first known in history, but it was not the author's plan to carry the history farther up than to Gødred Crowan, whom he probably supposed to be the founder of the reigning dynasty. Perhaps he did not even know of any King of Man previous to Gødred the son of Sigtrygg, although the Icelandic family-sagas, as well as the Irish annals, speak of kings either in Man or in the Isles for more than a century earlier than the two Gødreds here mentioned.
Goddard, the son of good King Olave, returned out of Norway (the whole Island submitting immediately to him), ordered two of the sons of Harrold to lose their eyes, and the third, who had been his father's murderer, to be executed. Having by this piece of justice cleared his way to the Crown, by the unanimous and hearty consent of the whole people, he assumed the Government. Goddard was then in the flower of his youth, brave, active, generous, with the mien and stature of a hero, and polished with a foreign education; all which, joined to the merit of an excellent father, attracted the hearts and adoration, not only of his own people, but of strangers. All the neighbouring provinces envied or admired the happiness of the Manks nation, and every one wished a King like theirs.