Sutherland and Caithness in Saga-Time

adson and t

h Sweyn on all his spring and autumn "vikings" or piratical cruises, undertaken every year to the Hebrides, Man, and Ireland, in one of which Sweyn took two English ships near Dublin, and returned to Orkney laden with broadcloth, wine, and English mead.3 Sweyn's life is thus described in c. 114 of the Orkneyinga Saga. "He sat through the winter at home in Gairsay, and there he kept always about him eighty men at his beck. He had so great a drinking-hall that there was not another as great in all the Orkneys. Sweyn had in the spring hard work, and made them lay down very much seed, and looked much after it himself. But when that toil was ended, he fared away every spring on a Viking-voyage, and harried about among the southern isles and Ireland, and came home after midsummer. That he called spring-viking

Earl of Ross, so that Gormflaith, who could hardly have been born during her father's imprisonment, must have been born either before 1135 or after 1157. Harold and Gormflaith's children were Thorfinn, who predeceased him, and also David and John, both afterwards in succession earls of Caithness and jarls of Orkne

of Eric Stagbrellir and Ingigerd's children, who were settled in Sutherland, the sons, Harald Ungi, Magnus, and Ragnvald Eric's son, fared east to Norway to King Magnus Erling's son, where young Magnus

, it remains for us to turn and observe the tide of civilisation and order which under our Scottish kings was now setting strongly northwards and ever further north in each successive

them down. The Pict of Moray was obstinately hostile to the Scots, and his leaders and rulers aspired to, and claimed the crown of Scotland itself. Rebellion after rebellion took place, and it was not until King David I had introduced the feudal baron with his mail-clad

vock, the Chisholms of Strath Farrer, the Bissets and Fresels or Frasers of Beauly, the Grants of Moray and Inverness, and the Comyns of Badenoch; for none of these held land north of the Oykel. But later on in the thirteenth century we shall have mo

in any charter direct to him,7 either of his Linlithgowshire lands at St

and we know that he entertained King David I there during the whole summer of 1150, while that king was superintending the building of the Abbey of Kinloss. From notices in a charter of King William the Lion granting and confirming to Freskyn's son, William, his father's lands of Strabrock in West Lothian and of Duffus, Roseisle, Inchkeile, Macher and Kintrai,8 forming almost the whole parish of Spynie, we believe him to have been dead by 1166, or, at the latest, 1171, the year of Sweyn Asleifarson's death, and we know that he held all these lands from David I, with probably many more in Moray. Contrary to the general impression, it seems probable that Freskyn had

, (2) William of Petty, and (3) Andrew, parson10 of Duffus, who appears in a writ as a son of Freskyn, and as a brother of Hugo Freskyn of Sutherland.11 Andrew was alive in 1190, and lived probably till 1221, and has been taken to have been the same person

several other sons from one of whom

ord and brother."13 This William, son of William son of Freskyn, was lord of Petty, near Fort George, and of Bracholy, Boharm, and Artildol, and died before 1226, leaving an eldest son Walter of Petty, a cousin of Sir Walter of Duffus, and from Walter of Petty are descended the great family, notorious in Ork

t possession as well. Two Charters, the Carta de Suthirland and Alia Carta Suthirlandiae appear in the list of documents in the Treasury of Edinburgh in 1282, and one or both of these may have been t

therland by Hugo Freskyn has been preserved until the present day in the Charter-room

r such lands the service of one bowman and the forinsec service due to the king in respect of such lands; and this grant was confirmed by King William the Lion (who died in December 1214) on the 29th of April, probably in 1212, at Seleschirche, now Selkirk, and was also confirmed by Hugo's son William, Lord of Sutherland, about 1214.17 This renders it certain that Hugo himself had died before December 1214, the latest possible limit of the dat

r of Duffus married Euphamia, daughter of the most able and renowned general of his time, Ferchar Mac-in-Tagart, Earl of Ross;20 and Walter was known as Sir Walter de Moravia, and lived till 1243, but was dead by 1248, his widow surviving him, and later on we shall come to another Freskin, their eldest son, (who was dominus de Duffu

the Lion and to Alexander II, between the year 1200 and the date of his creation, in the various difficulties and rebellions in Moray and Caithness, between which two centres of disaffection his territory of Sutherland lay.22 For William's family had then its "three descents" and more, and its chief had a sufficient body of retainers settled on the land to entitle him t

ich is strange Latin, but embraces all four generations. It is quoted in the New Spalding Club's Records of Elgin, p. 4, as from Act Parl. Scot, vol. 1, p. 79. The Charter is dated at Elgin probably near the end of the twelfth century, when William Mac-Frisgyn, Hugo, and Willi

e and on the Scottish sides, let us now look more closely and in detail at the main events which had been taking place ther

ung king Malcolm joined Henry II of England in his wars in France. During King Malcolm's absence abroad Fereteth, Earl of Stratherne, and five other earls, of whom Harold Maddadson was probably one, rebelled in 1160; and, on failing in an attempt to kidnap the young king, who had returned to quell the disturbance, the six earls were reconciled to him; and in the same year he subdued another rising in Galloway, and yet another in Moray. The subjugation of Moray is said to have been carried out with the greatest severity. According to Fordun25 the king "removed the rebel nation of Moray men and scattered them throughout the other districts of Scotland, both beyond the hills and this side thereof," though Robertson in his Early Kings expresses the opinio

rmish at Renfrew,28 and was not Somarled the freeman, who is said in the Orkneyinga Saga to have been slain

year. He was succeeded by his brother William the Lion, who was forth

eteen years jointly with Ragnvald, and for seven years sole jarl of those islands.30 He had probably put away his first wife Afreka of Fife about 1165, but he afterwards lived with Gormflaith, the daughter of Malcolm MacHeth from a date which cannot be fixed with certainty. Led by her, it is said, Harold was openly hostile to the Scottish king, of whom, however, he held the earld

who had been promoted to the see of Caithness before 1146, and died at Dunfermline on the 30th December 1184. Ingigerd, Earl Ragnvald's daughter, would at this time be a young wife and mother living with some of the elder of her six children, probably near Loch Naver, on part of the Moddan family lands there with her husband, Audhild's son Eric Stagbrellir, until their sons, Harald Ungi, Magnus, and Ragnvald, should grow up. But these sons, possibly on their father's death, and certainly before 11

ms as being of the line of Erlend Thorfinnson, to half the Caithness earldom and Jarl Ragnvald's lan

th was born by 1135, which is unlikely, his eldest son, Thorfinn could have been born, and some of the others. Thorfinn is mentioned by name in a grant33 of a silver mark per annum to the Church of Sc

, (see Rolls Edition p. 224), and inconclusive even if genuine. From the various allusions to Harold's union with Gormflaith, it would seem that Harold lived with her before he married her for many years, but married her legally after his first wife Afreka's death after 1198 when William t

ising on the northern and western coasts with Harold's so

ceived this grant after William the Lion's first conquest of Sutherland and Caithness in 1196, shortly before the time when, as we shall see, Harald Ungi obtained in right of his mother a grant of half Orkney from the Norse king, and another from the king of Scotland of half Caithness, and probably a confirmation of his title to the Moddan lands in Strathnaver and in Halkirk and Latheron, to which he was

ter rebellions, and the events which must have led to those deprivations may now be recoun

ed two castles of Eddirdovir on the site of Redcastle in the Black Isle on the Beauly Firth, and of Dunskaith35 on

alcolm Canmore by Malcolm's first marriage, so productive of civil war in Scotland, with Ingibjorg, widow of Earl Thorfinn. Civil war ensued, and lasted for six or seven years, when, by good

n submitted, and promised to surrender his son and heir, Thorfinn, as a hostage, with others of his friends to be delivered to the king at Nairn. Harold left all his hostages close by at Lochloy, and went alone to the king at Nairn, and endeavoured to excuse himself by offering two grandsons to the king and stating that Thorfinn was his heir38 and could not therefore be given up; but was taken prisoner himself and lodged in Edinburgh Castle, till his son Thorfinn came to take his place. On this occasion Har

n a pitched battle "near Wick," said to have been fought at Clairdon near Thurso, he slew Harald Ungi, and utterly defeated his army, in 1198.40 Harold the Old then endeavoured to make terms with the king, and offered him a large sum for the redemption of Caithness. The king, however, attached as conditions to any regrant, that the earl should put away Gormflaith, the daughter of MacHeth, and take back his wife, Afreka of Fife,

n of Ingibjorg, Earl Hakon's elder daughter, while Harold Maddadson was the son of Ingibjorg's younger sister, Margret of Athole. Ragnvald Gudrodson's title was, but for his own illegitimacy (in spite of which he held his own kingdom) equal, if not superior to that of all survivors of the Erlend Thorfinnson line, which was now represented in the male line only by another Ragnvald the

3 where the River Naver issues from the loch, drove him northwards down the strath to the coast, whence he escaped to Orkney. The Saga says simply that Harold

vald Gudrodson, for, it is said, a considerable

Bishop John interceded for the people of his diocese, Harold, whom he had irritated by refusing to collect the Peter's Pence which the Earl had given to Rome, would not listen to him, but mutilated him, probably in 1201, nearly blinding him, and all but cutting out his tongue, though afterwards the

de the best amends he could to them,45 and Rafn, the Lawman, seems to have ret

y and marched in person to Eysteinsdal or Ousedale near the Ord of Caithness, and Harold, though he is said to have brought together seven thousand two hundred men, avo

Caithness, though he lived until 1229. At the same time, we can hardly believe that Harold, as the Flatey Book says, received back "all Caithness as he had it before that Earl Harald the Young took it from the Skot-king."49 What happened probably was, that Harold Maddadson, who had been stripped by King Sverri of Shetland in 1195,50 was allowed by King William in 1202 to

scrupulous, he is still known in the North as "the wicked Earl Harold," yet the Saga classes him with Sigurd E

rulers, and dangerous enemies, and it was undesirable to increase their importance by additional dignities. It was, on the contrary, usual by charter to create barons and other military tenants, who should hold their lands, described in their charters, by military service, in male succession direct from the Scottish Crown, and liable to forfeiture for disloyal condu

simply Hugo Freskyn. The Sutherland Book also wholly omits William MacFrisgyn, second Lord of Duffus and Strabroc, the son and heir of Freskyn I and the father of Hugo. A revised pedigree of the early generations of Freskyn's family will be found in an Appendix to this book, and it is believed to be correct. At the same time it is in conflict as to the first three generations with so high an authority as the late Cosmo Innes, and Sir William Fraser followed him. However this may be, it is abundantly clear, from contemporary and undoubtedly authentic records still happily extant, that in the twelfth century Freskyn de Moravia and his immediate successors were the guardians appointed by one Scottish king