CONTEMPORARY PRINCES:
NORWAY: 1299 Hakon VI; 1319 Magnus VII (II of Sweden)
SCOTLAND: 1306 Robert Bruce
ENGLAND: 1306 Edward II
ROME: 1305 Clement V; 1316 John XXII
PRELATES:
ORKNEY: 1310 William III - [See Historiettes]
CAITHNESS: 1310 Ferquhard to 1328 - [See Historiettes]
It was in Earl Magnus' time, and presumably in his favour, that the King of Norway restricted the title of earl to the king's sons and the Earl of Orkney. King Hakon V had appropriated the revenue in 1309, during Magnus: minority, and a new treaty was entered into (1312) between Robert the Bruce and Hakon V to restore peace, when Scottish pirates seized and held to ransom Sir Berner Pess, the Norwegian Governor of the Islands during the earl's nonage, and Orkney had retaliated by a similar outrage upon Patrick of Mowat, a Scot-perhaps the first introduction of two names now common in the Islands. [Balfour's Memorial]
Magnus V appears at Inverness on the 28th October 1312, with Ferquhard, Bishop of Caithness, witnessing the confirmation by King Robert I and Hakon V of the prior treaty executed at Perth, 6th July 1266 between Alexander III and Magnus IV, the son of the unfortunate Hakon, by which the kings of Norway ceded forever the Isle of Man and all the other islands of the Sudreys, and all the islands in the west and south of the great Haf, except the Isles of Orkney and Shetland, which were specially reserved to Norway. In consideration of this the King of Scotland became bound to pay to the King of Norway and his heirs for ever an annual sum of 100 merks, within St. Magnus' Church, in addition to a payment of 4,000 merks to be paid within the space of four years.
The Earl of Orkney was not present at the Battle of Bannockburn, fought on St. John's Day 1314, but it is stated that Halcro of that Ilk [of Halcro], of an ancient and brave family still extant, commanded three hundred men and fought like a hero. He afterwards returned to Orkney with great honour, in commemoration of which there is yearly, on St. John the Baptist's Day, a bonfire at every farm-steading in Orkney, when all the Islands and mainland appear as if in a cloud of smoke. [From Torfaeus]
It is reported that the night before the victory two men came to Glassumber (Glastonbury), and desired lodging of the abbot that night, for they intended on the morrow, said they, to goe help the Scots. The abbot entertained them kindly, and rising in the morning next day to visit the guests, and finding none in the cloister, but the beds remaining untouched, he merveiled greatly, and who they should be he could not imagine, except they were angels. It is also reported that the same day the victory was obtained, a knight in glittering armour came riding through Aberdeen, signifying the great victory of the Scots, and one on horseback crossed Pentland Firth - which divideth Orkney from the rest of the land - whom they supposed to be St.Magnus of Orkney, sometime prince. [from Hay's Genealogie]
In recognition of the saintly support, King Robert endowed the church of Orkney with five pounds annually, out of the customs of Aberdeen, to purchase bread, wine; and wax for the use of the abbey. [White's Bannockburn]
In 1320, he, Earl Magnus, subscribed the famous letter to the Pope, asserting the independence of Scotland. Next year Earl Magnus must have been dead, for Caithness is governed by Henry St. Clair as "Ballivus" for the King of Scotland, and Orkney by a "ballivus" representing the Norwegian king. In 1329 his relict Katherine executes two charters in viduitate by which she, as Countess of Orkney and Caithness, purchases from Herr Erling Vidkunnsson, the Lord High Steward, certain lands in Rognvaldsey, including the Pentland Skerries. In one of these documents she speaks of Earl John, as he from whom her husband had inherited his possessions, which he left to her, thus corroborating the statement of the Diploma that Magnus was the son of John.