page_title: Óspakr-Hákon
section_title: Plunderer of Iona
hierarchical_section_title: Óspakr-Hákon / Plunderer of Iona
caption_attribution_description: English: The name of Óspakr suðreyski (died 1230) as it appears on folio 138v of AM 47 fol (Eirspennill): "Ospakr suðreyski". A transcription of this excerpt appears on page 468 of: Jónsson, F, ed. (1916). Eirspennill: Am 47 Fol. Oslo: Julius Thømtes Boktrykkeri.
context_page_description: Óspakr, also known as Hákon, was a King of the Isles. He seems to have been a son of Dubgall mac Somairle, King of the Isles, and therefore a member of the Meic Dubgaill branch of the Meic Somairle kindred. Óspakr spent a considerable portion of his career in the Kingdom of Norway as a member of the Birkibeinar faction in the Civil war era in Norway. He seems to be identical to Óspakr suðreyski, a Birkibeinar who took part in the plundering of Hebrides and the sacking of Iona in 1209/1210. The context of this expedition is uncertain, although it may have been envisioned as a way of reasserting Norwegian royal authority into the Kingdom of the Isles.
  In the decade following the ravaging of Iona, the Kingdom of the Isles was plagued by vicious conflict between two competing dynasts of the Crovan dynasty. Although one member of this kindred, Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles, overcame his main dynastic rival in 1229, he faced continued opposition from Alan fitz Roland, Lord of Galloway, and leading members of the Meic Somairle.
context_section_description: Óspakr seems to be identifical to Óspakr suðreyski, a like-named member of an invading Norwegian force that plundered Iona in 1210. According to the Icelandic annals, a military expedition from Norway into the Isles had been under preparation in 1209. The following year, this source makes note of "warfare" in the Isles, and reveals that Iona was pillaged. These reports are corroborated by the thirteenth-century Bǫglunga sǫgur, a saga-collection that survives in two versions. Both versions reveal that a fleet of Norwegians plundered in the Isles, and the shorter version notes how men of the Birkibeinar and the Baglar—two competing sides of the Norwegian civil war—decided to recoup their financial losses with a twelve-ship raiding expedition into the Isles. This particular version of the saga names Óspakr suðreyski as one of the three Birkibeinar leaders of the expedition.
  One possibility is that this operation was organised in the context of the Norwegian Crown reasserting royal authority in the Isles. For example, the longer version of the saga relates that a fleet of Norwegians made landfall in Shetland and Orkney, whereupon Bjarni Kolbeinsson, Bishop of Orkney, and the two co-earls of Orkney—Jón Haraldsson and Davið Haraldsson—were compelled to journey to Norway and submit to Ingi Bárðarson, King of Norway, rendering him hostages and a large fine. The same source further reveals that, as a consequence of the Norwegian plundering in the Isles, two members of the ruling Crovan dynasty—Rǫgnvaldr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles and his son Guðrøðr—also travelled to Norway, where they swore obedience to Ingi, paid him a tax, and took their lands from him as a lén (fief). The submission of the Islesmen seems to have been undertaken at about the time of a reawakening of Norwegian royal authority following the settlement between the opposing Birkibeinar and Baglar factions. There is reason to suspect that the destructive Norwegian activity in the Isles may have been some sort of officially sanctioned punishment in response to not only Rǫgnvaldr's recalcitrance of his Norwegian obligations, but his recent reorientation towards the English Crown. In any case, the fact that Ingi turned his attention to the Isles so soon after peace was brokered between the Birkibeinar and Baglar may well indicate the importance he placed on his relations with his contemporaries in the Isles.
  Within the same year of the attack, the Icelandic annals state that a certain Koli was consecrated Bishop of the Isles. This record could reveal that Koli's consecration was somehow related to the Norwegian expedition of 1209/1210, and that—just as the Orcadian earls were accompanied to Norway by their bishop—Rǫgnvaldr and Guðrøðr may have been accompanied by Koli. The Norwegian undertaking, therefore, may have been designed to reassert Norwegian overlordship over both secular and ecclesiastical authorities in Norwegian satellites overseas. If correct, the voyage would seem to have been orchestrated by both Ingi and his chief prelate, Þórir Guðmundarson, Archbishop of Niðaróss. Although the leadership of the Meic Somairle had controversially refounded Iona at the turn of the century, and had further secured its independence from the Diocese of the Isles by placing it under the protection of the papacy, the Norwegian sack of the island may not have been a sanctioned act. One possibility is that a visit to the island by the Norwegian delegation disastrously deteriorated into otherwise unplanned violence.
caption: Óspakr suðreyski's name as it appears on folio 138v of AM 47 fol (Eirspennill): "Ospakr suðreyski".[32] Óspakr suðreyski's epithet, suðreyski, translates to "the Hebridean".[33]
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