page_title: Óláfr Guðrøðarson (died 1237)
section_title: Marriage to Lauon
hierarchical_section_title: Óláfr Guðrøðarson (died 1237) / Marriage to Lauon
caption_attribution_description: English: An excerpt from folio 42r of British Library MS Cotton Julius A VII (the Chronicle of Mann). The excerpt reads in Latin "Lauon".
context_page_description: Óláfr Guðrøðarson (died 1237), also known as Olaf the Black, was a thirteenth-century King of the Isles, and a member of the Crovan dynasty. He was a son of Guðrøðr Óláfsson, King of the Isles and Fionnghuala Nic Lochlainn. Óláfr was a younger son of his father; Óláfr's elder brother, Rǫgnvaldr, probably had a different mother. According to the Chronicle of Mann, Guðrøðr appointed Óláfr as heir since he had been born "in lawful wedlock". Whether or not this is the case, after Guðrøðr's death in 1187 the Islesmen instead appointed Rǫgnvaldr as king, as he was a capable adult and Óláfr was a mere child. Rǫgnvaldr ruled the island-kingdom for almost forty years, during which time the half-brothers vied for the kingship.
  Óláfr appears to have held authority on the island of Lewis and Harris. At some point, Óláfr appears to have confronted Rǫgnvaldr for a larger stake in the kingdom, after which Rǫgnvaldr had him seized and imprisoned by the King of Scotland. Upon his release in 1214/1215, Óláfr is stated to have undertaken a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, after which the half-brothers were reconciled, and Rǫgnvaldr had Óláfr married to Lauon, the sister of his own wife.
context_section_description: Upon Óláfr's return from his pilgrimage, the chronicle records that Rǫgnvaldr had Óláfr marry "Lauon", the sister of his own wife. Rǫgnvaldr then granted Lodhus back to Óláfr, where the newly-weds proceeded to live until the arrival of Reginald, Bishop of the Isles. The chronicle claims that the bishop disapproved of the marriage on the grounds that Óláfr had formerly had a concubine who was a cousin of Lauon. A synod was then assembled, after which the marriage is stated to have been nullified.
  Although the identity of the half-brother's father-in-law is uncertain, the chronicle describes him as a nobleman from Kintyre, which suggests that he was a member of Clann Somhairle, since sources concerning this kindred associate it with Kintyre more than any other region. As such, the father could have been either Raghnall mac Somhairle, or Raghnall's son, Ruaidhrí—both of whom appear to have been styled "Lord of Kintyre" in contemporary sources—or possibly even Raghnall's younger son, Domhnall.
  It is conceivable that Rǫgnvaldr's marriage was undertaken before 1210, perhaps not long after 1200 considering the fact that Guðrøðr Dond—a product of this union—was an adult by 1223 and had fathered at least one son by this date. Óláfr's marriage to Lauon may have taken place in 1216. The binding of Rǫgnvaldr and Óláfr to Clann Somhairle wives could well have been orchestrated in an effort to patch up relations between the Crovan dynasty and Clann Somhairle, neighbouring kindreds that had bitterly contested the kingship of the Isles for about sixty years. 
  After the death of Aonghus mac Somhairle in 1210, the leading dynast of Clann Somhairle appears to have been Ruaidhrí. It is possible that, as a result of the marriage alliance between his family and the Crovan dynasty, Ruaidhrí acknowledged Rǫgnvaldr's kingship, and thereby established himself as a leading magnate within a reunified Kingdom of the Isles. Since the majority of Ruaidhrí's territories appear to have been mainland possessions, it is very likely that the Scottish Crown regarded this alliance and apparent reunification of the Isles as a threat to its own claims of overlordship of Argyll. In fact, it is possible that the Scots' release of Óláfr in 1214 was intended to cause dynastic discord in the Isles. If this was indeed the case, the reconciliation between the half-brothers ensured that the Scottish Crown's machinations came to nought—at least temporarily.
caption: The name of Óláfr's wife, Lauon, as it appears on folio 42r of British Library Cotton Julius A VII: "Lauon".[90] This woman could have been a close kinswoman of Ruaidhrí mac Raghnaill, perhaps a daughter.[91][note 7]
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