The medieval earldoms of Orkney and Caithness were positioned between two worlds, the Norwegian and the Scottish. They were a maritime lordship divided, or united, by the turbulent waters of the Pentland Firth. This unlikely combination of island and mainland territory survived as a single lordship for 600 years, against the odds. Growing out of the Viking maelstrom of the early Middle Ages, it became an established and wealthy principality which dominated northern waters, with a renowned dynasty of earls. Despite their peripheral location these earls were fully in touch with the kingdoms of Norway and Scotland and increasingly subject to the rulers of these kingdoms.

How they maintained their independence and how they survived the clash of loyalties are themes explored in this book from the early Viking age to the late medieval era when the powerful feudal Sinclair earls ruled the islands and regained possession of Caithness.

This is a story of the time when the Northern Isles of Scotland were part of a different national entity which explains the background to the non-Gaelic culture of this locality, when links across the North Sea were as important as links with the kingdom of Scotland to the south.

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication page
• Contents
• List of Plates
• List of Figures
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1971–2012
• Earls and Kings
• Joint Earldoms
• Bibliographical References for Introduction
• 1 Between Norway and Scotland: Joint Earldoms and Divided Loyalties
• 1.1 Political and Maritime Contexts
• 1.1.1 Waterways, lordships and power centres
• 1.2 Earls of Different Kingdoms
• 1.2.1 Peripheral communities
• 1.2.2 Borders and frontiers
• 1.3 Historical Approaches
• 1.3.1 Local historians
• 1.3.2 Genealogies
• 1.4 Lordship
• 2 The Sources of Knowledge about the Joint Earldoms: Documentary Survival and Historical Reality
• 2.1 Evaluation of Jarls’ Saga (Orkneyinga Saga)
• 2.2 Runic Inscriptions
• 2.3 Latin Documents
• 2.4 Norwegian Documents
• 2.5 Scots Documents and the ‘Genealogy of the Earls’
• 2.6 Liturgical Fragments
• 2.7 Material Evidence
• 2.7.1 Ecclesiastical foundations
• 2.7.2 Secular residences: Birsay and Kirkwall
• 2.7.3 Seals
• 3 Viking Earls: AD 870–1030
• 3.1 Mythical Origin
• 3.1.1 Nordic significance of the origin myth
• 3.1.2 Title of jarl
• 3.2 Creation of the Earldom of Orkney
• 3.2.1 Economic interests
• 3.2.2 King and jarl
• 3.3 Earl Sigurd I ‘the Mighty’ (hinn ríki)
• 3.3.1 Sigurd I’s death and burial c.892
• 3.3.2 Place-name and archaeological evidence for Norse settlement on the north mainland of Scotland
• 3.4 The Tenth Century – Survival and Accommodation
• 3.4.1 Einar: the one-eyed slave-born earl (fl.900)
• 3.4.2 Struggle for control of Caithness
• 3.4.3 Earldom contacts beyond Caithness and Orkney
• 3.5 Sigurd II Hlodversson ‘the Stout’ (digri)
• 3.5.1 Expansion south and west
• 3.5.2 Hoards, arm-rings and an earldom economy
• 3.5.3 Earl Sigurd digri’s conversion and death
• 3.6 Earl Thorfinn ‘the Mighty’ (hinn ríki)
• 3.6.1 Relationship with Olaf Haraldsson
• 3.6.2 Caithness contested between Earl and Mormaer
• 3.6.3 Campaigns to the Hebrides and internal rivalries
• 3.6.4 Division of the earldoms
• 4 Medieval Earls: 1050–1150
• 4.1 Earl Thorfinn’s Founding of the Orkney Bishopric
• 4.2 Military Organisation and Earldom Authority in the West
• 4.2.1 Ross – the southern frontier
• 4.2.2 Thorfinn’s ‘famous journey’ and pilgrimage to Rome
• 4.2.3 Ingibjorg ‘Earls’-mother’(jarlamóðir) and problems of chronology
• 4.2.4 Eulogy of Earl Thorfinn and developments after his death
• 4.3 Hierarchy of Power: Magnus Olafsson ‘Barelegs’(Berfættr) and the Earls
• 4.3.1 Royal ambitions and the role of the Orkney earldom
• 4.3.2 Rival earls
• 4.4 Twelfth-century Earldom Society
• 4.4.1 Events in Caithness
• 4.4.2 Rognvald Kali Kolsson
• 4.4.3 Frakokk and Clan Moddan, and the Celto-Norse society of Caithness and Sutherland
• 4.5 Aspiring Earls and Scottish Influence
• 4.6 Aspects of Political Geography in the Twelfth-century Earldoms
• 4.6.1 Scapa Flow
• 4.6.2 Castles
• 5 Saint-Earls and Orkney’s Twelfth-century Renaissance
• 5.1 The Killing of Earl Magnus
• 5.2 Growth of the Magnus Cult
• 5.2.1 Preconditions for sanctification
• 5.2.2 Bishop William’s role
• 5.2.3 ‘Elevation’ of the relics and ‘Translation’ to Kirkwall
• 5.2.4 Kol’s speech and the building of St Magnus Cathedral
• 5.3 Pilgrimages and an Age of Piety
• 5.3.1 Earl Rognvald: pilgrim, poet and benefactor
• 5.3.2 Earl Rognvald ‘the Holy’
• 5.4 The Two Orkney Saints
• 5.5 Architectural Evidence
• 5.5.1 Egilsay and the Brough of Birsay
• 5.5.2 Parish churches
• 5.6 Orkney’s Twelfth-century Renaissance
• 6 Earls Constrained by the Power of Kings in the Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries
• 6.1 Circumstances of Divided Loyalty
• 6.2 Earl Harald Maddadson (1158–1206)
• 6.2.1 The meeting of royal authority in the earldoms
• 6.2.2 Harald’s disloyalty and King Sverrir’s anger
• 6.3 Harald, Earl of Caithness and King William
• 6.3.1 Harald ‘The Young’ (ungi) and the Battle of Wick
• 6.4 Violence in Caithness
• 6.4.1 Earl Harald’s attack on the stewards and on Bishop John
• 6.4.2 Punishment: papal penance and royal retribution
• 6.5 Earl Harald’s Ultimate Survival
• 6.6 The Last Joint Earls: David and John Haraldsson
• 6.6.1 Repairing relations with the kings of Norway and Scotland
• 6.6.2 Loss of Sutherland
• 6.7 Conspiracy in Norway and More Violence in Caithness
• 6.7.1 The burning of Bishop Adam in 1222
• 6.7.2 Royal vengeance
• 6.7.3 Contextualising the evidence about the nature of Caithness society
• 6.8 Murder of Earl John (1230)
• 6.8.1 The end of the old line and the end of an era
• 7 Shadow Earls: 1230s–1370s
• 7.1 The Angus Earls
• 7.1.1 Royal reorganisation in the north
• 7.1.2 Johanna and Matilda, heiresses to the earldom lands
• 7.1.3 The new dynasty’s adjustment to the north
• 7.2 Installation as Earls of Orkney – Hirðskrá
• 7.2.1 The earls’ position
• 7.3.1263 and the Problem of Divided Loyalty
• 7.3.1 King Hakon Hakonsson’s motivation and preparation
• 7.3.2 1263 naval expedition west
• 7.3.3 Earl Magnus Gilbertsson’s circumstances
• 7.4 The Treaty of Perth 1266
• 7.4.1 Earl Magnus Gilbertsson’s reconciliation 1267
• 7.5 ‘A Northern Commonwealth’ and the role of the earls
• 7.5.1 The death of the Maid of Norway in Orkney 1290
• 7.5.2 International and national matters: 1295 and after
• 7.5.3 Weland de Stiklaw
• 7.6 Earldom Minorities and Abeyance
• 7.6.1 Trouble between Scots and Norwegians in the islands
• 7.6.2 Malise, earl of Caithness and Orkney c.1330–c.1350
• 7.6.3 Filling the vacuum after Earl Malise’s death
• 7.7 Developments Regarding Caithness and the Breaking of the Link with Orkney
• 7.7.1 Alexander of Ard, eldest grandson of Earl Malise and the loser of both earldoms
• 7.7.2 Changes in Caithness: evidence of feudalising influences
• 8 Sinclair Earls: 1379–1470
• 8.1 Earl Henry I (1379–c.1400)
• 8.1.1 Earl Henry’s terms of appointment
• 8.2 Earl Henry I’s Establishment of his Authority
• 8.2.1 The killing of Bishop William
• 8.2.2 Malise Sperra, the dangerous cousin with a rival claim
• 8.2.3 Shetland and the Sinclairs
• 8.2.4 Earl Henry I’s priorities
• 8.3 Earl Henry II (1400–1420) and his Grandmother Isabella Sinclair
• 8.4 Earl William Sinclair (1420–1470)
• 8.4.1 The rule of David Menzies and the abeyance of the earldom
• 8.4.2 Compiling the ‘Genealogy of the Earls’ and William’s position
• 8.4.3 Earl William’s Installation 1434
• 8.4.4 Chancellor of Scotland 1454–1456 and earl of Caithness
• 8.5 The Gathering Storm Clouds
• 8.5.1 Earl William’s position in the minority of James III (1460–1468)
• 8.5.2 The marriage treaty and the pledging of Orkney and Shetland (1468–1469)
• 8.5.3 Earl William’s renunciation of his right to the earldom of Orkney – the excambion of 1470
• 9 The Aftermath of the Old Earldoms
• 9.1 The Revival of Sinclair Power and Influence in the North
• 9.1.1 Lord Henry Sinclair, ‘farmer’ and ‘leaseholder’
• 9.1.2 Kirkwall’s Burgh charter
• 9.1.3 Earl William’s family settlement
• 9.2 Sir David Sinclair of Sumburgh
• 9.2.1 Sir David’s will of 10 July 1506
• 9.3 Changing Worlds
• 9.3.1 Turbulence in Caithness
• 9.3.2 The Pentland Firth – a barrier at last?
• Retrospective Summary
• Bibliography
• Index