page_title: Óláfr Guðrøðarson (died 1153)
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Óláfr Guðrøðarson (died 1153) / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: An excerpt from folio 46v of Oxford Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson B 489 (the Annals of Ulster). The excerpt concerns Magnús Óláfsson, King of Norway (died 1103). The excerpt gives Magnús' name and title.
context_page_description: Óláfr Guðrøðarson was a twelfth-century King of Mann and the Isles. As a younger son of Guðrøðr Crovan, King of Dublin and the Isles, Óláfr witnessed a vicious power struggle between his elder brothers in the aftermath of their father's death. At some point, the young Óláfr was entrusted to the care of Henry I, King of England, and like the contemporaneous Scottish monarchs, Alexander I and David I, Óláfr appears to have been a protégé of the English king. As King of the Isles, Óláfr contracted marital alliances with neighbouring maritime rulers. Although he appears to have overseen successful military operations to reclaim the northern-most territories once controlled by his father, he may have witnessed the loss of authority in Galloway as well. Like his counterpart David I, Óláfr was a reformer and moderniser of his realm. However, his four-decade reign ended in abrupt disaster when he was assassinated by three nephews in 1153. Following the ensuing power struggle, Óláfr's son Guðrøðr overcame the kin-slayers, and assumed the kingship of the Kingdom of the Isles.
context_section_description: Óláfr was a member of the Crovan dynasty. He was a son of this family's eponymous ancestor, Guðrøðr Crovan, King of Dublin and the Isles. Others sons of Guðrøðr Crovan include Lǫgmaðr and Haraldr. Óláfr's father appears to have secured the kingship of the Isles in the late 1070s, and to have seized the kingship of Dublin in the early 1090s. Guðrøðr Crovan's downfall came in 1094 when he was forced from Ireland altogether by Muirchertach Ua Briain, King of Munster. There is reason to suspect that Guðrøðr Crovan was driven from Mann as well, since he is recorded to have died on Islay the following year.
  According to the thirteenth- to fourteenth-century Chronicle of Mann, Guðrøðr Crovan's eldest son, Lǫgmaðr, succeeded to the kingship of the Isles. The chronicle further reveals that Lǫgmaðr faced opposition from within his own family in the form of a rebellion by his brother, Haraldr. Lǫgmaðr eventually overcame Haraldr, however, and is stated to have had him blinded and emasculated. Afterwards, Lǫgmaðr appears to have faced further opposition in the form of a faction supporting his youngest brother, Óláfr. Apparently unable to overthrow Lǫgmaðr on their own, the dissidents turned to Muirchertach, whose recent conquest of Dublin gave him control of that realm's dominating naval forces.
  If the chronicle is to be believed, Óláfr's supporters petitioned Muirchertach to provide a regent from his own kin—the Uí Briain—to govern the Isles until Óláfr was old enough to assume control himself. Such a clause may well have been a condition of Muirchertach's involvement, rather than a request. Nevertheless, the chronicle indicates that Muirchertach installed his nephew, Domnall mac Taidc, upon the throne. Although Domnall had previously opposed Muirchertach over the kingship of Munster, he was the son of Muirchertach's brother, and further possessed strong familial connections with the Isles through his maternal descent from Echmarcach mac Ragnaill, King of Dublin and the Isles. Regardless, the death of Domnall's brother, Amlaíb, recorded by the seventeenth-century Annals of the Four Masters in 1096, suggests that Domnall and the rest of the Meic Taidc faced significant opposition in the Isles, possibly in the form of Lǫgmaðr's adherents. Domnall's reign appears to have been brief. The chronicle's account of warfare on the island in about 1097–1098 fails to mention him at all, a fact which seems to be evidence that he had lost control by then.
  Probably late in 1097, Magnús Óláfsson, King of Norway turned his attention towards the Isles, and sent a certain Ingimundr into the region to take control on his behalf. Unfortunately for Magnús, Ingimundr was soon after slain on Lewis and Harris by leading Islesmen. The following year Magnús took matters into his own hands, and led an invasion-fleet of his into the area. As the invaders successfully carved their way through the Isles towards Mann, Lǫgmaðr was evidently overcome and captured. From Mann, the Norwegians campaigned against the English in Anglesey. Although Magnúss saga berfœtts, within the thirteenth century Heimskringla, places this particular episode in the context of Norwegian conquest, it is likely that Magnús had merely assumed the same protector role that Óláfr's father had once filled with Gruffudd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd. Magnús gained the submission of Galloway, and may have consolidated his campaign through a treaty with Edgar, King of Scotland.
  Magnús overwintered in the Isles, and left for Norway in the summer. He made his return to the region, nearly four years later, in 1102 or 1103. After reestablishing himself on Mann, Magnús entered into a marital alliance with Muirchertach formalised through the marriage between Magnús's young son, Sigurðr, and Muirchertach's young daughter, Bjaðmunjo. The fact that Magnús intended to return to Norway reveals that Muirchertach benefited to most from the arrangement, although the alliance appears to have bound the kings against a common enemy in the region, Domnall Mac Lochlainn, King of Cenél nEógain. Unfortunately for Muirche
caption: The name and title of Magnús Óláfsson as it appears on folio 46v of Oxford Bodleian Library Rawlinson B 489 (the Annals of Ulster).[63]
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