THE long and happy tranquillity which the Manks, under the government of Gødred the son of Olave the Red, was soon disturbed by the contests of his sons for the diadem of the Isles
Anno MCLXXI. Henricus rex, etc. The yeare should be 1170, as in the Chronicle of Melrose, from which this entry is taken. It does not make the coronation-day of young Henry the same as the consecration-day, which is the case in Chron. de Melrose, where the words run thus : " Henricus rex Anglioe fecit coronari Henricum puerum, et in regent apuci Lundonias, xi. kalendas Junii in die dominica consecrari a Rogero," 1 etc. In 1170, the 22d of May was not a Sunday, but a Friday.
Vivian, Cardinal-priest of St. Stephen, in Monte Coelio, is mentioned in several chronicles. The Chronicle of Melrose mentions Olave's arrival in Scotland in the yeare 1176, saying of him " conculcans et comminuens omnia quæque, expeditus capere nec impeditus rapere,"—and states, that returning from Ireland in 1177, he held a council of the Scotch prelates at Edinburgh. See moreover Roger Hoveden (Savile, p. 553), and Bromton (Twysden, p. 110), where it is expressly stated that he was sent to visit not only Scotland, Ireland, and the Isles, but also Norway; to which country, however, he never came. Bromton says that he landed in England the 22d of June 1176, without the consent of the king; who, therefore, would not allow him to go farther till he had sworn not to do anything against him; having complied with the request he got letters of safe conduct to Scotland, whence, about Christmas, he visited Man, where he staid a fortnight, continuing his journey to Ireland, where he encouraged the inhabitants of Downshire to hold out against John de Courcy. Afterwards, therefore, as a punishment, he was put into prison by John, but released after a short while, held a council at Dublin, and returned to Scotland, where he is said to have created so great dissatisfaction by his avarice that the Pope was obliged to recall him. 1
REGINALD, the eldest, being illegitimate, Olave was elected king: but as the former was of a mature age, and of a bold, subtle, and politic genius, he soon triumphed over his younger brother. The Usurper then banished the young Prince to the Isle of Lewis; among the barren solitudes of which he and his faithful adherents were almost famished. From misfortune the mind sometimes derives new vigour. Olave, instead of yielding to increasing hardships, was ambitious of combating them. He returned to Man, and boldly remonstrated with Reginald; but the tyrant, so far from mitigating, heightened his sufferings. The Prince was delivered as a captive to the King of Scotland; and by his severity was for seven years imprisoned and loaded with chains. On the death of that Monarch he was liberated: and being sup ported by several of the Nobility of the Isles, he again returned to Man; and soon afterwards obtained a moiety of the kingdom. Reginald retained the government of Man, and part of the Western Isles was ceded to the younger brother. The pride of the Usurper being however severely wounded by this division of the Isles, he attempted again to subject them to his dominion: but unable to atchieve this act of injustice, he sailed for Scotland to solicit the assistance of the Lord of Galloway. Emboldened by the absence, and impatient of the barbarity and oppression of Reginald, the Manks invited OLAVE to the throne; who, on his return, was welcomed by the people with reiterated shouts of heart-felt joy.
Anno MCLXXII. Again the number of the yeare is wrong, this being evidently 1182. Neither the Reginald here spoken of, nor the " Fogolt " Vicecomes Manniae, named in the next entry, are mentioned anywhere else. This is the first time that the title " Vice-Comes " occurs in the Chronicle, and it is very uncertain what the Norwegian term was for this denomination. In 1223 a " vicecomes de Sky " is mentioned, whence it would seem that each of the greater islands had a " Vicecomes " or governor. Very likely the title existed since the times of Earls Sigurd, and Thorfinn of Orkney, when the Isles were subjected to these earls, and their substitutes who commanded in their names really did so " vice Comitum." In the times, however, of King Gødred, the substitute governors ought rather to be called viceroys.
Reginald, visited the court of England; and to recover his crown, proffered homage to King John, and submission to the Pope. Relying on their protection, and assisted by the Lord of Galloway and the Earl of Athol, he conducted a ferocious army to desolate a country, from which his crimes had expelled him. Olave being then absent in the more remote Isles, accompanied by the flower of his Nobility and Soldiery; the Isle of Man was thus exposed to the inhumanities of a tyrant, gloNving with revenge, and to the lust and brutality of his barbarous army. Having for the present satiated his vengeance, by murdering the men, ravishing the women, burning the churches, &c. &c. he fled from the just resentment and indignation of his brother, who speedily returned to save his kingdom: from utter devastation. However, in the ensuing winter, Reginald again returned with a few vessels, and at midnight burnt all the shipping belonging to Olave and the Nobility of the Isles, which was then lying at anchor under Peel-Castle. He then sailed to Derby-Haven, and, pretending to solicit reconciliation with his brother, by his bold demeanour and subtle insinuations, seduced many of the inhabitants from their loyalty to him. Notwithstanding this defection of many of his subjects, the men of the northern division were determined to conquer, or die, with Olave. A civil war was thus begun, which was terminated by a dreadful combat near the site of the Tynwald. Reginald fell in the battle: and probably over the relics of him and his followers, that noble Tumulus (afterwards distinguished as the throne of legislation to the kingdom of Man) was reared by his pious brother.
Olavi—utpote decennis pueri. As it is expressly stated that Olaf was three years old in 1176, when the solemn wedding took place between his father and mother, he must have attained his 14th, not only his 10th year, at his father’s death. From the supplementary narrative, p. 82, we learn that Reginald, if not immediately at his accession, at least sometime afterwards, assigned to Olaf the island of Lewis for maintenance. Very likely he gave him in exchange for the royal power the same appanage, or fief, which he had himself hitherto obtained. In the Icelandic Saga of the celebrated chief and physician Rafn Sveinbiarnarson it is told rather at length, how this Rafn and the bishop-elect Gudmund, sailed from Iceland towards Norway in the yeare 1202, were driven by storms to Sandey, one of the Sudreys, where they happened to find King Olaf and the bishop, and were compelled by the former to pay a tax, at first calculated at fifty marks, but afterwards, as the Icelanders showed fight, abated to fifteen marks.1 Sandey being no doubt Sandera, one of the southernmost of the long series of islands called Long Island, beginning with Lewis, it is evident that Olaf did not get this island only, but also the others, North-Uist, Harris, South-Uist, Benbecula, etc.,—down to the southernmost point.
Reginald, the elder brother, was, according to the Orkney Saga, regarded as one of the most warlike princes in the western parts of Europe at his time; once, it is stated, he passed three entire successive years in the manner of the ancient sea-kings, always on board his ship, never during the whole period for one single hour living beneath the roof of a house. Our Chronicle entirely omits his participation in the Orkneyan affairs, which however is spoken of by Roger Hoveden under the yeare 1196; and the whole narrative of Hoveden, of these events, is again copied by the writer of our Chronicle in a separate article, bound up in the same MS. vol 2 It is to be observed that Hoveden mentions under one yeare what really took place in three or four. We shall here briefly enumerate the events in the connexion which appears to be just, after duly comparing the Orkney Saga, the Melrose Chronicle, and Fordun. The powerful Orkneyan earl, Harold son of Madadh, Earl of Atholl, had for a long period been on bad terms with King William of Scotland. It is very probable that Harold was one of the six earls who rebelled against King Malcolm in 1160, in order to place William of Egremont, grandson of Duncan, on the throne; and that he also supported the son of William, Donald Bane, who aspired to the throne, and from 1180-1187 maintained himself in Moray and Ross, till he was killed in the battle of Macgarvey (July 31 , 1187).