Название: A Mighty Fleet and the King's Power: The Isle of Man, AD 400 to 1265
Автор: Tim Clarkson
Издательство: John Donald
Год: 2023
Страниц: 240
Язык: английский
Формат: epub
Размер: 11.5 MB

Situated in the middle of the Irish Sea, the Isle of Man is like a stepping-stone between the lands that surround it. In medieval times, it played an important role in the histories of Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. This book explores the first part of that turbulent era, tracing the story of the Isle of Man from the fifth to the thirteenth centuries. It looks at the ways in which various peoples – Britons, Scots, Irish, English and Scandinavians – influenced events in Man over a period of more than 800 years. A large portion of the book is concerned with the Vikings, a group whose legacy – in place names, old burial mounds and finely carved stones – is such a vivid element in the Manx landscape today.

This book is about a small island in the Irish Sea that has its own identity, its own language and its own remarkable story. Ellan Vannin, the Isle of Man, is best known to the inhabitants of the larger countries that surround it as a holiday destination, accessible by aeroplane or ferry from Britain and Ireland or from other, more distant countries. Few people outside Man are likely to know much of its history, although a larger number are no doubt aware of the Tourist Trophy or ‘TT’ motorcycle races for which it is rightly famed. Many will recognise the distinctive Three Legs emblem that appears on the Manx flag and in various contexts around the island. Anyone who has visited as holidaymaker or motorcycle enthusiast will know that Man has its own government and, while being British in many ways, is not part of the United Kingdom. Indeed, at one time it had its own kings and was the chief centre of power in an extensive maritime kingdom stretching northward to the Hebrides. The last of those kings died nearly eight centuries ago. The dynasty to which he belonged had ruled for some 200 years, having been founded by a Viking warlord called Godred Crovan in the last quarter of the eleventh century. Godred’s fame has long since turned him into a mighty figure of legend, an ancestral hero who will one day return to protect the Manx people. He is one of many individuals who have played significant roles in the story of the Isle of Man since it first appeared in historical records 2,000 years ago. This book aims to tell one of the early parts of that story, from the fift h century to the thirteenth.

The main narrative of this book encompasses a period of roughly 850 years, from the end of Roman rule in Britain around AD 410 to the death of the last king of the Crovan dynasty in 1265. To this timespan is added a short prologue at the beginning and an epilogue at the end. In broad chronological terms, the book’s main focus is the early medieval period or Early Middle Ages – an era commonly seen as encompassing the period 400 to 1100 – together with a further 160 years to accommodate the Manx royal dynasty founded by Godred Crovan. The narrative therefore includes much of the period known as the Central Middle Ages, spanning four centuries from 900 to 1300.1 A substantial portion of the book inevitably deals with the Viking Age, the chronological limits of which – in Britain, at least – are usually defined by two significant events: the Norse raid on Lindisfarne in 793 and the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066. Historians nevertheless recognise that many of the characteristics of ‘Viking-type’ activity continued well beyond the eleventh century in the Irish Sea region and in the maritime zones lying off the northern and western coasts of Scotland. Moreover, in all of these areas – which include the Isle of Man together with the archipelagos of Orkney, Shetland and the Hebrides – political connections with Scandinavia were maintained well into the 1200s. Here, unlike in the rest of Britain, the Viking Age lingered on, long after the conventional landmark date of 1066. Some historians of medieval Scotland, seeking a chronological label for this extended timeframe, speak of the ‘Long Viking Age’. Others, including many archaeologists, prefer ‘Late Norse’, and this is the term adopted in the following chapters.