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HARALD III, 29TH EARL, 1176-1198

CONTEMPORARY PRINCES
NORWAY: 1136 Sigurd; 1155 Eystein II; 1157 Inge I; 1161 Hakon III; 1162 Magnus V; 1186 Sverre; 1202, Hakon IV; 1204 Guttorm; 1205 Inge II
SCOTLAND: 1124 David I; 1153 Malcolm IV; 1165 William the Lion; 1213 Alexander II to 1248
ENGLAND: 1135 Stephen; 1154 Henry II; 1l59 Richard
ROME: 1130 Innocent II; 1143 Celestin II; 1144 Lucius II; 1145 Eugenius III; 1153 Anastasius IV; 1154 Adrian IV; 1159 Alexander III; 1181 Lucius III; 1185 Urban III; 1187 Gregory VIII, Clement III; 1191 Celestinin III; 1198 Innocent III
PRELATES
ORKNEY: 1102 William I the Old; 1168 William II; 1185 Bjarni - See Historiettes

Earl Harald the Younger then went west, and with him was Sigurd Murl, the son of Ivar Galli, who fell at Acre when with Earl Rognvald. Ivar's mother was a daughter of Havard Gunnisson. Sigurd Murl was young, handsome, and a great dandy. Magnus Magni remained with the King, and fell with him in Sogn.

It has been seen that Earl Harald the Wicked had by his second marriage allied himself with Hvarfiod, daughter of Malcolm MacHeth, the soi-disant Earl of Moray, ex-Bishop Wimund, and pretender to the Scottish throne, and consequently there could be no pacific relations between him and King William the Lion. The events of this period are somewhat confusedly told in the chronicles, but it seems probable that Harald was one of the six earls who rebelled against King Malcolm in 1160, in order to place Wi11iam of Egremont, grandson of Duncan, on the throne, and that he also supported Donaldbane, the son of William, who aspired to the throne, and from 1180 maintained himself in Moray and Ross, till he was slain at the battle of Macgarvey (1187). Thereafter Harald, presumably in right of his wife, laid claim to that region, for we are informed by Roger de Hoveden, chaplain to Henry II, a contemporary chronicler: "In 1196, William King of Scots, having gathered a great army, entered Moray to drive out Harald MacMadit, who had occupied that district. But before the king could enter Caithness, Harald fled to his ships, not wishing to risk a battle with the king. Then the King of Scots sent his army to Thurso, the town of the aforesaid Harald, and destroyed his castle there. But Harald, seeing that the king would completely devastate the country, came to the kings feet and placed himself at his mercy, chiefly because of a raging tempest in the sea and the wind being contrary so that he could not go to the Orkneys; and he promised the king that he would bring to him all his enemies when the king should again return to Moray. On that condition the king permitted him to retain a half of Caithness, and the other half he gave to Harald the Younger, grandson of Reginald, a former Earl of Orkney and Caithness. Then the king returned to his own land and Harald to the Orkneys. The king returned in the autumn to Moray, as far as Invernairn, in order to receive the king's enemies from Harald. But, though Harald had brought them as far as the port of Lochloy, near Invernairn, he allowed them to escape, and when the king returned late from hunting, Harald came to him, bringing with him two boys, his grandchildren, to deliver them to the king as hostages. Being asked by the king where were the king's enemies he had promised to deliver up, and where was Thorfinn, his son, whom he had also promised as a hostage, he replied: "I allowed them to escape, knowing that if I delivered them up to you they would not escape out of your hands. My son I could not bring, for there is no other heir to my lands". So, because he had not kept the agreement which he had made with the king, he was adjudged to remain in the king's custody until his son should arrive and become a hostage for him. And, because he had permitted the king's enemies to escape, he was also adjudged to have forfeited those lands which he held of the king. The king took Harald with him to Edinburgh Castle, and laid him in chains until his men brought his son Thorfinn from the Orkneys, and on their delivering him up as a hostage to the king, Harald was liberated".

So Harald returned to Orkney, and there remained in peace and quiet until Harald the younger, having received a grant of half of the Orkneys from Magnus Erlingsson, the King of Norway, joined himself to Sigurd Murl and many other warriors, and touching at Shetland and Caithness, invaded Orkney. Harald the elder, being unwilling to engage with him in battle, left the Orkneys and fled to the Isle of Man. He was followed by the younger Harald, but Harald the elder had left Man before his arrival there, and gone by another way to the Orkneys with his fleet, and there he killed all the adherents of the younger Harald whom he found in the Islands. The latter passed to the Scottish court, and King William the Lion readily embraced his interests, granting him the half of Caithness which had been held by his sainted grandfather. He then hastened on to Caithness, where he had many noble kinsmen, to collect an army. Lifolf Skaili commanded his troops. Lifolf had married his sister Ragnhild. Young Harald first preferred a request to the elder Earl Harald, asking the cession of half the Isles, but he refused absolutely to divide his dominions on any condition, and upbraided Lifolf. Both then prepared for war, and the two forces met in Caithness at Wick, - or as some say at Clairdon - where the elder Harald obtained a decisive victory. When ranged in battle array Sigurd and Lifolf each led one wing of the army of the young Harald, and performed prodigies of valour before falling. Lifolf behaved most valiantly of all. The Caithness men say he broke three times through the ranks of the Islesmen before being slain, after having gained great fame. Young Harald's soldiers then fled, and he himself was wounded to the death.

"Thus fell young Harald, as of old fell his sires,
And the bright hall of heroes bade hail to his spirit".

He fell near some turf-pits, and that very night a bright light illuminated the place where his blood stained the soil. People said he was truly a saint, and a church was erected on the spot. He was buried in Caithness. Innumerable miracles are by God granted through his merits, which testify that he wished to go to the Orkneys to his kinsmen, Earl Magnus and Earl Rognvald. The elder Harald subdued all Caithness, and passed in triumph to the Orkneys, but presently went to King William, under safe conduct of Roger and Reginald, the Bishops of St. Andrew's and Rosemarkie, and took to the king a large sum in gold and silver for the redemption of his lauds in Caithness. The king said he would restore him Caithness if he would divorce Gormlath, his wife, the daughter of Malcolm MacHeth, and take back his first wife, Afreka, the sister of Duncan, Earl of Fife, and deliver up to him as hostages Laurentius, his priest, and Honaver, the son of Ingemund. But this Harald was unwilling to do. Therefore King William allowed Reginald, royalet of the Hebrides, to purchase from him Caithness, saving the king's annual tribute. Rognvald's grandmother was the daughter of Earl Hakon the Imperious. Rognvald was the greatest warrior then in the western lands, and for three years had slept in no other habitation than a warship. He at once collected men from Kintyre and the Hebrides, and being supplied with auxiliaries from Ireland by his brother-in-law, John de Courcy, Lord of Ulster, overran Caithness, but on the approach of winter returned to the Hebrides, leaving the conquered earldom in charge of three deputies - Mani Olafsson, Hrafn the Lawman, and Hlifolf Alli. Harald all this time remained in the Orkneys, but presently sent a partisan across, who slew Hlifolf. Harald followed up the murder by crossing himself. Landing at Scrabster he was met by the Bishop, who endeavoured to mollify him, but Harald had a special grudge against Bishop John, which added to his rage at what he considered the defection of his Caithness subjects. The Bishop had refused to collect from the people of Caithness a tax of one penny annually from each inhabited house, which Earl Harald had some years previously granted to the papal revenues. Accordingly he stormed the "borg" at Scrabster, in which the Bishop and the principal men of the district had taken refuge, and in this evil mood slew almost all who were in it, torturing the recalcitrant Bishop, whom he caused to be blinded and have his tongue removed. As Bishop John recovered both sight and speech by invoking the aid of the holy virgin St.Tredwell, it is presumed the torture was more nominal than real. Fordun says the use of his tongue and of one eye was in some measure left him. The letter of Pope Innocent, addressed to the Bishop of Orkney, prescribing the penance to be performed by Lomberd, the mutilator of the Bishop, only mentions the cutting out of the tongue. The two remaining deputies of King Reginald fled to the King of Scots, whose first act was to take revenge on Harald's son Thorfinn. He was blinded and castrated after the barbarous manner of the times, and died miserably in the dungeon of Roxburgh Castle. Thorfinn appears on record as early as about 1165. In the Chartulary of Scone there is a document by "Harald, Earl of Orkney, Hetland, and Catauess", granting to the monks of Scone a mark of silver, to be paid annually by himself, his son Turphin, and their heirs. Rognvald's stewards stayed with King William during Advent, and were able to give particular intelligence of everything that happened in Caithness during Earl Harald's stay there. The king was highly enraged at hearing the news, but he said he would pay back double to those who had lost their own. The first day they stayed with the king twenty-five ells of cloth and an English mark in ready money was given to each of them. They spent the Yule-tide with the king, and were well treated.

After Yule the king sent word to all the chiefs in his kingdom, and collected a large army throughout the country, and with all these troops he went down to Caithness against Earl Harald. With this great army be pursued his journey till he came to Eysteindal, where Caithness and Sutherland meet. The camp of the King of Scots stretched, far along the valleys.

Earl Harald was in Caithness when he heard the news, and he drew troops together immediately. It is said he obtained six thousand men, and yet he had no chance to withstand the King of Scots. Then he sent men to him to sue for peace. When this request was brought before King William, he said it was no use asking for peace unless he had every fourth penny that was to be found in all the land of Caithness. When the Earl received this message he called together the inhabitants and chiefs, and consulted with them. As they, however, had no means of resisting, it was agreed that the Caithnessmen should pay one-fourth of all their property to the King of Scots, except those men who had gone to see the King in winter. Earl Harald went out to the Orkneys, and was to have Caithness, as he held it before King William bestowed the half on Earl Harald the Younger. The Caithness toll of one-fourth penny amounted to two thousand marks. King William then returned to Scotland.

Harald had no sooner settled matters with his Scottish suzerain than he found himself similarly situated with his other suzerain, the reigning King of Norway, which kingdom had been for some time in a state of civil war over the succession, contended for by two factions-the one supporting the pretensions of King Sverre, who was ultimately successful, and the other, the claims of Sigurd, son of King Magnus Erlingsson. Many men of noble birth in the Orkneys joined the latter party, and it was very strong. They were for a while called the Islanders or Golden1egs. They met in battle in Floruvogar, when Sigurd was slain, as also Harald's son-in-law Olaf, and John Hallkelsson, on account of Harald's complicity with the enlisting of the Orcadian legion he was in great disfavour with King Sverre, and was obliged to present himself before that monarch in Bergen. He went from Orkney accompanied by Bishop Bjarni. In presence of a great assembly in Christ's Kirk-garth, the Earl confessed his fault, saying that he was now an old man, as his beard bore witness; that he had bent the knee before many kings, sometimes in closest friendship, but oftener in circumstances of misfortune; that he had not been unfaithful to his allegiance, although some of his people might have done that which was contrary to the kings interests; that he had not been able to rule the Orkneys entirely according to his own will, and that he now came to yield up himself and all his possessions into the king's power. So saying, he advanced, and casting himself to the earth he laid his bead at King Sverre's feet. The king granted him pardon, but took from him the whole of Shetland, which was disunited from Orkney until re-granted to Earl Henry St.Clair in 1379. It was also resolved that all the land-tax and fines from Orkney and Shetland were to fall to the king in Norway; and the king set his bailiff, by name Arne Loria, with the Earl in Orkney, and Earl Harald durst not act adversely during King Sverre's lifetime, but straightway after his death be caused Arne Loria to be slain, and laid Orkney and Hjaltlaud under him again, with all scatts and dues as before. [From Orkneyinga Saga]

Harald's chequered career was now drawing to a close. He died in 1206 at the advanced age of seventy-three, having been Earl for twenty years jointly with Earl Rognvald and forty-eight years after his death. Of his sons,

  1. Henry had the earldom of Ross, in Scotland
  2. Hakon is surmised to have fallen with Sweyn Asleifsson in the Dublin ambush
  3. Thorfinn died in captivity in Roxburgh Castle after being mutilated by King William the Lion, to whom he had been surrendered as a hostage
  4. Roderic, is mentioned in Balfour's Annals [Balfour] as being mortally wounded in the first passage-at-arms, in 1196, between Harald and King William
  5. David & John succeeded next

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