Amlaíb Cuarán

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Reverse of a coin minted at York in the early 940s, the legend refers to the moneyer Ascolf, the symbol may be the Raven banner; the legend on the obverse, which shows a triquetra symbol, is read ANLAF CVNVNCC (King Anlaf, the Old English form of Óláfr)
Reverse of a coin minted at York in the early 940s, the legend refers to the moneyer Ascolf, the symbol may be the Raven banner; the legend on the obverse, which shows a triquetra symbol, is read ANLAF CVNVNCC (King Anlaf, the Old English form of Óláfr)

Amlaíb mac Sitric (c. 926?–981), Old Norse Óláfr Sigtryggsson, commonly called Amlaíb Cuarán, in Old Norse Óláfr kváran, was a 10th century Norse-Gael who was king of York and king of Dublin. His byname, cuarán, is usually translated as "sandal". His name appears in a variety of anglicized forms, including Olaf Cuaran and Olaf Sihtricson, particularly in relation to his short-lived rule in York.[1] He was the last of the Uí Ímair to play a major part in the politics of Britain and Ireland.

Amlaíb was twice, perhaps three times, ruler of York and Northumbria and twice ruler of Dublin and its dependencies. A king for forty years, he was an indomitable, but far from invincible warrior, and a ruthless pillager of churches, who ended his days in respectable retirement at Iona Abbey. Born when the Uí Ímair ruled over large areas of Britain and Ireland, by his death the kingdom of Dublin was a minor power in Irish politics. At the same time, Dublin became a major centre of trade in Atlantic Europe and mastery over the city and its wealth became the supreme prize for ambitious Irish kings.

In death Amlaíb was the prototype for the character Havelok the Dane. In life he was a patron of Irish poets and Scandinavian skalds who wrote verses praising their paymaster. Amlaíb was married at least twice, and had many children who married into Irish and Scandinavian royal families. His descendants were kings in the Isle of Man and the Hebrides until the 13th century.

Contents

[edit] Background

[edit] Origins

Main article: Uí Ímair

The Ímar from whom the Uí Ímair were descended is generally presumed to be that Ímar, "king of the Northmen of all Britain and Ireland", whose death is reported by the Annals of Ulster in 873. Whether this Ímar is to be identified with the leader of the Great Heathen Army, or with Ivarr the Boneless, is less certain.[2]

Amlaíb Cuarán was probably a great-grandson of Ímar. There is no contemporary evidence setting out the descent from Ímar to his grandsons, but it may be that the grandsons of Ímar recorded between 896 and 934—Amlaíb Cuarán's father Sitriuc (d. 927), Ragnall (d. 921), Gofraid (d. 934), Ímar (d. 904) and Amlaíb (d. 896)—were brothers rather than cousins.[3] Amlaíb's father Sitriuc first appears in the record in 917 when he seized Dublin, a Norse-Gael settlement which had probably been under the control of an Irish king since the expulsion of the previous Viking rulers in 902.[4]

Sitriuc ruled Northumbria until his death in 927. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records his marriage to King Æthelstan's sister at Tamworth on 30 January 926. According to some late sources, such as the chronicler John of Wallingford, Amlaíb was the son of Sitriuc and this West Saxon princess.[5] Sitriuc's other sons includeed Gofraid (died 951), king of Dublin, Aralt (died 940), ruler of Limerick, and, less certainly, Sichfrith and Auisle, listed among those killed at the battle of Brunanburh in 937 by the Annals of Clonmacnoise.[6] A daughter of Sitriuc named Gytha is said in the Heimskringla to have married Norwegian pirate king Olaf Tryggvason, but she was probably rather a daughter of Amlaíb Cuarán.[7]

On Sitriuc's death, Amlaíb may have been king in York for a short time,[8] but Æthelstan took over the kingdom of Northumbria and defeated Sitriuc's brother Gofraid. According to William of Malmesbury, Amlaíb fled to Ireland while his uncle Gofraid made a second unsuccessful attempt to gain control of York.[9] In 937 an attack on Æthelstan's kingdom by Gofraid's son Amlaíb, assisted by Constantín mac Áeda, the king of Alba, and Owen, the king of Strathclyde, ended in defeat at the battle of Brunanburh.[10] William of Malmesbury wrote that Amlaíb was present at Brunanburh and spied out the English camp the night before the battle disguised as a skald.[11]

King Æthelstan died in 939 and his successor, his half-brother Edmund, was unable to keep control of York. Amlaíb mac Gofrith, ruling in Dublin, crossed to Britain where he was accepted as king of the Northumbrians. He died in 941, shortly after sacking the church of Saint Baldred at Tyninghame, struck dead by the saint's power according to the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto.[12]

[edit] York

Amlaíb Cuarán's career begins in 941 with the death of his cousin Amlaíb mac Gofrith when he became king of York, sharing power with his cousin Ragnall son of Gofraid. According to the Annals of Clonmacnoise, Amlaíb had been in Britain since 940, having left another son of Gofraid, Blácaire, as ruler of Dublin.[13]

Amlaíb and Ragnall ruled in York until 944. The dating of events in period between the death of Æthelstan and the expulsion of Amlaíb and Ragnall is uncertain as the various versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle are in conflict. It appears that after Æthelstan's died, not only did Edmund lose control of Northumbria, but that the Five Burghs of the Mercian Danelaw also pledged themselves to Amlaíb mac Gofrith.[14] One of the Amlaíbs stormed Tamworth according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:

Here Olaf broke down Tamworth and a great slaughter fell on either side, and the Danes had the victory and led much war-booty away with them. Wulfrun was seized in the raid. Here King Edmund besieged King Olaf and Archbishop Wulfstan in Leicester, and he might have controlled them had they not escaped from the stronghold in the night.[15]

It is not clear where in the period 940 to 943 these events should be placed, and as a result historians disagree as to whether they concern Amlaíb mac Gofrith or Amlaíb Cuarán.[16]

Edmund reconquered the Five Burghs in 942, an event celebrated in verse in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The Chronicle then reports the baptism of Amlaíb with King Edmund apparently his godfather.[17] This need not mean that Amlaíb was not already a Christian, nor would baptism have made him a Christian as such baptisms were political acts. Alfred the Great, for example, had sponsored the baptism of Christian Welsh king Anarawd ap Rhodri.[18] Amlaíb was expelled from the kingship of York in 944. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that "King Edmund conquered all Northumbria and caused to flee away two kings [or "royally-born men"], Olaf and Rægnald".[19] It is possible that rivalry between Amlaíb and Ragnall contributed to their fall.[20] Æthelweard's history reports that Amlaíb was deposed by a coup led by Wulfstan, Archbishop of York, and an unnamed Mercian ealdorman.[21]

[edit] Congalach and Ruaidrí

After being driven out of Northumbria Amlaíb returned to Ireland while Ragnall may have been killed at York.[22] The Uí Ímair in Ireland had also suffered in 944 as Dublin was sacked that year by the High King of Ireland Congalach Cnogba. The following year, perhaps as a result of the sack of Dublin, Amlaíb's cousin Blácaire was driven out and Amlaíb replaced him as ruler of Dublin. Amlaíb was allied with Congalach and may have been put into power with his assistance.[23]

Congalach and Amlaíb fought against Ruaidrí ua Canannáin, a rival for the High Kingship. In 945 they defeated part of Ruaidrí's army in Conaille Muirtheimne (modern County Louth) and the following year Amlaíb raided Kilcullen in the province of Leinster. In 947 Ruaidrí routed Congalach and Amlaíb at Slane. Losses among the Dublin men were heavy, many drowning while fleeing the battle. This defeat appears to have lost Amlaíb his kingship as the annals record Blácaire as the leader of the Dublin forces in the following year. Blácaire was killed in 948 by Congalach, and was succeeded by Amlaíb's brother Gofraid.[24]

[edit] York again

The course of events in Northumbria while Amlaíb was in Ireland is uncertain. While Edmund certainly controlled Northumbria after Amlaíb was expelled and Ragnall killed, he may soon after have lost control of the north to a Scandinavian king named Eiríkr, usually indentified with Erik Bloodaxe.[25] If Erik did rule in Northumbria before Edmund's death, it was only for a short time. Edmund was killed in 946, and succeeded by his brother Eadred. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that Eadred "reduced all the land of Northumbria to his control; and the Scots granted him oaths that they would do all that he wanted".[26] The Northumbrian submission to Eadred led to a meeting with the notables of York led by Archbishop Wulfstan in 947, but the following year King Erik was back ruling Northumbria and Eadred laid waste to the southern parts of the kingdom—Ripon is mentioned as a particular target—to force the Northumbrians to expel Erik, which they did.[27]

The following year, 949, by which time Blacáire was dead and Amlaíb's brother ruling in Dublin, the Northumbrians invited Amlaíb to rule in York.[28] His return to England may have been with Eadred's agreement.[29] That year Máel Coluim mac Domnaill, the king of Alba, raided Northumbria as far south as the River Tees, capturing many slaves and much loot. Whether this invasion was directed against Amlaíb, or perhaps intended to support him by plundering only northern Northumbria which may have been outwith his control, is uncertain. A second invasion from the north in 952, this time an alliance including Máel Coluim's Albanians and also Britons and Saxons, was defeated. Again, whether this was aimed against Amlaíb, who was deposed in 952 and replaced by Erik, or was mounted against King Erik in support of Amlaíb, is unclear. Erik's reign was short and the Viking kingdom of York was be definitively incorporated into the kingdom of the English on his death in 954. Amlaíb returned to Ireland, never again to rule in York.[30]

[edit] From Dublin to Tara

While Amlaíb had been in York Gofraid had died in Dublin of disease in 951. Congalach's rival Ruaidrí was also dead, leaving Amlaíb's former ally as undisputed High King and a threat to Dublin and the south-eastern Irish kingdom of Leinster. This threat led to Congalach's assassination at Dún Ailinne (modern County Kildare) while collecting tribute in Leinster in 956. The main beneficiary was the brother of Amlaíb's new wife Dúnflaith, Domnall ua Néill, who became the next High King of Ireland. The marriage linked Amlaíb not only to the northern Uí Néill kindred of Cenél nEógain, but also to the southern Clann Cholmáin as he was now stepfather to Dúnflaith's young son Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill.

In 980, Amlaíb suffered a massive defeat at the Battle of Tara, which destroyed the power of the Norse in Ireland. He went to Iona and probably died there in 981.

[edit] Marriages and children

He was succeeded by his son Glúniairn (Járnkné, literally "Iron Knee"), son of his wife Dúnlaith, daughter of Muirchertach mac Néill. Among his wives was Gormflaith, daughter of Murchad mac Finn, King of Leinster, and future wife of Brian Boru. Gormflaith's son Sitric Silkbeard was king of Dublin after Glúniairn's death. Amlaíb's other children included Gytha, who married Olaf Tryggvason, Máel Muire, who married Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill, and Harald, possibly the grandfather of Godred Crovan.[31]

[edit] Cuarán

Amlaíb's byname, cuarán, is usually translated as "sandal" or "shoe". It derives from the Old Irish word cúar meaning bent or crooked. It is first applied to him in the report of the battle of Slane in 947 in the Annals of Ulster. The usual translation may be misleading. The epithet probably refers to a distinctive style of footwear. Benjamin Hudson points to the description of a cuarán in a twelfth century satire, where it is made of leather folded seven times and has a pointed toe. In Aislinge Meic Con Glinne and Scél Baili Binnbérlaig, the cuarán is waterproof. In the first story Mac Con Glinne cleans his by dipping them in his bath; in the second, a cuarán serves as a vessel to drink from. That the cuarán was a piece of footwear specific to Dublin is suggested by statements in other stories that have cobblers in the town owing a cuarán in taxes.[32]


[edit] Notes

  1. ^ In Old English he was Anlaf. To Irish speakers he may also have been Amlaíb mac ua Ímair or Amlaíb ua Ímair but others shared these names.
  2. ^ Ó Cróinín, Early Medieval Ireland, pp. 250–254, discusses Ímar's career and the various arguments. See also Woolf, Pictland to Alba, chapter 2; Downham, Viking Kings, chapters 1–3, especially pp. 17–23 & 64 –67. Ó Corráin, "Vikings in Scotland and Ireland", passim, sets out the case against the identification.
  3. ^ Thus Downham, Viking Kings, p. 29, figure 6. Cyril Hart's contributions to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography make Ragnall, Sitriuc and Gofraid brothers; likewise Hudson, Viking Pirates, p. 31, figure 1, makes these three brothers, sons of Guthfrith, King of York.
  4. ^ Downham, Viking Kings, pp. 27–35.
  5. ^ According to William of Malmesbury, who states that he did not know the princess's name, she was Æthelstan's full sister, daughter of Edward the Elder and his first wife Ecgwynn, John of Wallingford gives her name as Orgiue, perhaps Eadgifu; Hudson, Viking Pirates, pp. 28–29.
  6. ^ Hudson, Viking Pirates, p. 31, figure 1, shows only Gofraid; Downham, Viking Kings, p. 29, figure 6 & pp. 245, 247, 254 & 269; Annals of Clonmacnoise, s.a. 931.
  7. ^ Hart, "Sihtric Cáech"; "Saga of Olaf Tryggvason", chapter 32, Heimskringla, pp. 171–173; Hudson, Viking Pirates, p. 31, figure 1 & p. 84.
  8. ^ Thus Keynes, "Rulers of the English", p. 505.
  9. ^ Downham, Viking Kings, p. 100; Hudson, Viking Pirates, p. 29; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 151. Hudson, "Óláf Sihtricson", presumes Amlaíb to have been born in York, in which case he was a child at this time.
  10. ^ Add.
  11. ^ Hudson, Viking Pirates, pp. 30–31; Hudson states: "If there is any historical basis to this story, Olaf Cuaran is clearly confused with his cousin ...".
  12. ^ Hudson, "Óláf Guthfrithson"; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 174.
  13. ^ Downham, Viking Kings, pp. 43, 241 & 248; Costambeys, "Ragnall Guthfrithson"; Hudson, "Óláf Sihtricson"; Hudson, Viking Pirates, pp. 33–34; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 181; Annals of Clonmacnoise, s.a. 933.
  14. ^ Higham, "Five Boroughs"; Higham, Kingdom of Northumbria, p. 193; Miller, "Edmund"; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 174; but that either Amlaíb controlled the Mercian Danelaw is questioned by Downham, Viking Kings, pp. 108–109.
  15. ^ Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 111, Ms. D, s.a. 943.
  16. ^ The events are associated with Amlaíb mac Gofrith by e.g. Higham, Kingdom of Northumbria, p. 193; Miller, "Edmund"; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 174. Others, e.g. Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 111, note 11; Downham, Viking Kings, p. 110; Hudson, "Óláf Sihtricson", associate them with Amlaíb Cuarán.
  17. ^ Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 110–111, Ms. A, s.a. 942, Ms. D, s.a. 942 & 943.
  18. ^ Thus Hudson, Viking Pirates, p. 34. Regarding the baptism, Hudson describes it as "... a politically motivated act ... a recognised means of sealing an alliance with a dominant individual ...". Ragnall was baptised some time later according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
  19. ^ Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 110–111, Ms. A, s.a. 944, Ms. E., s.a. 944.
  20. ^ Downham, Viking Kings, pp. 46 & 111–112; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 182.
  21. ^ Hudson, Viking Pirates, p. 35; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 182, suggests that the unnamed Mercian leader was Æthelstan Half-King.
  22. ^ Costambeys, "Ragnall"; Downham, Viking Kings, p. 46; the killing of Ragnall is reported in the Annals of Clonmacnoise, s.a. 937.
  23. ^ Downham, Viking Kings, pp. 46, 241 & 248; Hudson, Viking Pirates, pp. 35–36.
  24. ^ Downham, Viking Kings, pp. 46–47 & 241; Hudson, Viking Pirates, pp 36–37; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 186.
  25. ^ For a contrary view of Erik's identity see Downham, Viking Kings, pp. 115–120 and Woolf, Pictland to Alba, pp. 187–188.
  26. ^ Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 112–113, Mss A & D, s.a. 946, Ms. E, s.a. 948.
  27. ^ Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 112–113, Ms D, s.a. 947 & 948.
  28. ^ Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 112–113, Ms E, s.a. 949.
  29. ^ Downham, Viking Kings, pp. 114–115.
  30. ^ Woolf, Pictland to Alba, pp. 178–190; Hudson, Viking pirates, pp. 37–38; Downham, Viking Kings, pp. 153–155.
  31. ^ Downham, Viking Kings, p. 29, figure 6; Hudson, Viking Pirates, p. 49, figure 2 & p. 83, figure 3. Text references reqd.
  32. ^ Hudson, Viking Pirates, pp. 36–37.

[edit] References

Regnal titles
Preceded by
Sihtric ua Ímair		 King of York?
927?		 Succeeded by
English control
Preceded by
Amlaíb mac Gofrith		 King of York
with Ragnall?
941–944		 Succeeded by
Ragnall or English control
Preceded by
Blácaire mac Gofrith		 King of Dublin
945–947		 Succeeded by
Blácaire mac Gofrith
Preceded by
English control?		 King of York
949–952		 Succeeded by
Erik Bloodaxe
Preceded by
Gofraid mac Sitriuc		 King of Dublin
952–980		 Succeeded by
Glúniairn