Page images
PDF
EPUB

much prudence and justice as showed him to be greater than a saint.

About 614 this island is related to have been conquered by Edwin, king of Northumberland: but, how long he possessed it is uncertain: a blank occurs, even in tradition, till the tenth century, when a second Orry, son of a king of Denmark and Norway, having conquered the Orcades and Hebrides, fixed the seat of his government in the Isle of Man, where he reigned long and prosperously; and became the father of a race of kings, from him called Orries.

This second Orry throws a doubt on the existence of a former king of that name, whose insertion may be esteemed the work of some zealous Manksman, anxious to carry back, as far as possible, the antiquities of his country.

To Guttred, the son of Orry, is ascribed the building of Castle Rushen, A.D. 960, in which he lies obscurely buried. He is said to have Jaboured greatly to advance the civilization of his people.

Reginald, the third of the family, was slain by two brothers of his army, whose sister he had seduced.

From the history of Olave, the next king, it

appears that, since its conquest by Orry, the island had remained tributary to the crown of Norway for this Prince, having assumed the crown without the King of Norway's consent, was civily invited to that country; but, on landing, was seized and executed.

Olain, his brother, is said to have seized on this and some other islands, by which expression we are perhaps to understand, that he did not wait for the consent of Norway, but maintained himself as an independent prince. After a pros perous reign of twenty-three years, he died of a flux in Ireland.

Allen succeeded, a cruel, libidinous man, who was poisoned by his governor. He left the crown to his son Fingal, who was succeeded by his son Goddard, princes of whom no character and no history are given.

According to the Manks tradition, twelve kings reigned successively of the race of Orry. The preceding list contains only eight; and it is remarkable that the most celebrated sovereign of the family should not have a certain place.

We learn from Sacheverel that Macon lived about the middle of the tenth century, a date which would place him either immediately before

or immediately after Guttred, if there was room for him there. He is said to have lost his crown for refusing to do homage to Edgar, King of England; but he was afterwards restored, and made admiral of that prodigious fleet of four thousand eight hundred sail,* with which, twice a year, he sailed round the British islands, to clear the sea from rovers, especially the Danes and Normans, who, at that time, sadly infested the coasts of Europe.

How long this great man reigned is uncertain, and likewise, who succeeded him, though his name was probably Syrach, who held the kingdom about the beginning of the eleventh century, and was succeeded by his son Goddard, a man of no faith, no honour, treacherous, inconstant, timorous, and unjust, who in the latter part of his reign hospitably received and entertained Godred Crovan, the future conqueror of Man.

The establishment of this Prince is related in the Manks Chronicle, the first authentic history of Man. What precedes seems neither very

* Matthew of Westminster. Hoveden says 3600 sail; Brompton 4000. Hume considers these accounts as perfectly incredible.

consistent in itself, nor to rest on any substantial authority, nor are the dates easily reconciled with each other. The first of the Orrys appears to have conquered the island for the crown of Norway; and Olain seems to have enfranchised it. from that dependence. Guttred was Sovereign in 960 Macon, by the correspondence of English history, in 974, the year in which King Edgar is said to have been rowed by eight kings on the Dee. Olain reigned twenty-three years: be therefore must have followed Macon. But, it seems very improbable that Macon, who did homage for his crown to England, and had the 'command of its prodigious fleet, should have acknowledged any dependence on Norway. In this dilemma, perhaps the best way is to follow the opinion of Sacheverel, and, passing the eight first Sovereigns of the history as the invention of the Manks, consider Macon as the first and indeed the only Sovereign of Man of whom we have any authentic account previously to the establishment of the Normans under Godred Crovan.

334

CHAPTER II.

From the Conquest of Godred Crovan to the revestment of the Island in the Crown of England, in 1765.*

1066]-WHILE William of Normandy was making preparations for the invasion of England, he prevailed upon Harold's offended brother Tosti, in concert with Halfagar, King of Norway, to assist him in the enterprize by a descent upon the county of Northumberland. Their combined fleets, consisting of three hundred and sixty sail, entered the Humber; and their troops were disembarked with little moles

*This chapter, to the Scottish conquest, is written on the authority of the Chronicon Maniæ, a work composed by the Monks of Rushen Abbey, and published by Camden in his Britannia. The style of the Latin is that usually termed monkish and very bad of the sort. Prepositions are used for adverbs; et nunquam ultra deversus est ad eos." It it a considerable time since I saw it in the original, and then read very little of it. Being unable to meet with it in my present place of residence, I have made use of Gough's Camden, to which likewise I am indebted for most of the latter part of this chapter.

« PreviousContinue »