Óláfr Guðrøðarson (died 1153)
Óláfr Guðrøðarson was a twelfth-century King of Mann and 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 I, King of England, and like the contemporaneous Scottish monarchs, Alexander I and David I, 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 northernmost territories once controlled by his father, he may have witnessed the loss of authority in Galloway as well. Like his counterpart David I, Óláfr was a reformer and moderniser of his realm. However, his four-decade reign ended in abrupt disaster when he was assassinated by three 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 two decades until his death in 1095, whereupon his eldest son Lǫgmaðr assumed control. Warring soon broke out between factions supporting Lǫgmaðr'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 I 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 I'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 Rushen Abbey, 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: Ingibjǫrg, 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 strengthened by Norwegian military might. Óláfr's descendants went on to reign as kings of the Isles for over a century.
Background
Óláfr was a member of the Crovan dynasty. He was a son of this family's eponymous ancestor, Guðrøðr Crovan, King of Dublin and the Isles. Others sons of Guðrøðr Crovan include Lǫgmaðr and Haraldr. Óláfr's father 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. 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- to fourteenth-century Chronicle of Mann, Guðrøðr Crovan's eldest son, Lǫgmaðr, succeeded to the kingship of the Isles. The chronicle further reveals that Lǫgmaðr faced opposition from within his own family in the form of a rebellion by his brother, Haraldr. Lǫgmaðr eventually overcame Haraldr, however, and is stated to have had him blinded and emasculated. Afterwards, Lǫgmaðr appears to have faced further opposition in the form of a faction supporting his youngest brother, Óláfr. Apparently unable to overthrow Lǫgmaðr on their own, the dissidents turned to Muirchertach, whose recent conquest of Dublin gave him control of that realm's dominating naval forces.
File:Domnall mac Taidc.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Refer to caption|The name of Domnall mac Taidc as it appears on folio 33v of British Library Cotton Julius A VII : "Dompnaldum filium Tadc".
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, 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. 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 Lǫgmaðr'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.
File:Magnús Óláfsson.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Refer to caption|The name and title of Magnús Óláfsson as it appears on folio 46v of Oxford Bodleian Library Rawlinson B 489.
Probably late in 1097, Magnús Óláfsson, King of Norway 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, Lǫgmaðr 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. Magnús gained the submission of Galloway, and may have consolidated his campaign through a treaty with Edgar, King of Scotland.
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 a marital alliance with Muirchertach formalised through the marriage between Magnús's young son, Sigurðr, and Muirchertach's young daughter, Bjaðmunjo. 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. 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.
Restoration of the Crovan dynasty
If the Chronicle of Mann is to be believed, at one point in his career Lǫgmaðr 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 Lǫgmaðr 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 Lǫgmaðr has been contaminated by anachronistic conceptions.File:Lǫgmaðr Guðrøðarson.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Refer to caption|The name of Lǫgmaðr Guðrøðarson as it appears on folio 33v of AM 47 fol : "Lǫgmaðr het son Guðrǫðar Suðr eyia konvngs". The excerpt describes Lǫgmaðr as the son of Guðrøðr Crovan, king of the Suðreyjar—an Old Norse term meaning "Southern Islands", roughly equating to the Hebrides and Mann.
If Lǫgmaðr 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. Lǫgmaðr could have embarked upon this enterprise in about 1096, the year the pope's calls reached England. Alternately, in light of Lǫgmaðr'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 Lǫgmaðr originally undertook a pilgrimage before catching wind of the crusade en route.
Another possibility is that Lǫgmaðr 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 Lǫgmaðr joined up with him. If Lǫgmaðr 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 I 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, 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 I. Conceivably, writers may have sought out the patronage of the young Óláfr by borrowing tales of his famous like-named forebear.
File:Muirchertach Ua Briain.jpg|thumb|alt=Refer to caption|left|The name and title of Muirchertach Ua Briain as it appears on folio 19r of Oxford Bodleian Library Rawlinson B 488 : "Muirchertaigh h-Úi Bríain, ríg Muman". Under Muirchertach, the Irish Uí Briain kindred sought to extend its influence into the Isles.
According to the twelfth-century Historia regum Anglorum, Alexander I, King of Scotland 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 exact date of his accession to the kingship of the Isles is uncertain. Although the chronicle claims that he began to reign in 1102, it also states that he reigned for forty years, and shows that he died in 1153. If this reign length is correct, his accession probably dates to about 1112, 1113, 1114, or 1115. In any case, 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 I, 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 I. Whilst it is possible that this action was a consequence of Muirchertach's familial relationship with his son-in-law Arnulf de Montgomery—and Muirchertach's apparent 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 I's care. By establishing Óláfr in the Isles, Henry I 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.