Individual

Go to List of Family Names Go to List of People    < Previous Next >

Birth:          ABT  965 Orkney Islands
Death:          23 Apr 1014 Battle of Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland
Cause of Death: killed in battle
Burial:         Burial Mound, Hofry, Caithness, Scotland

Notes
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jweber&id=I10050
On the Earldom of Caithness:

Around the close of the first millennium the territory in the northernmost part of 
Scotland over which the Earls of Caithness later held sway was frequently divided in 
two, each part being in the possession of different Norse Jarls or Earls of Orkney, 
though each Jarl seems to have been a member of the same extended family. The 
Earldom (as it came to be called) of Orkney and that of Caithness differed to a certain 
extent in that the former was held of the Kings of Norway while the latter was held of 
the Kings of Scots. This meant that different customs were observed in each territory, 
specifically in the case of the Earldoms that the Orkney one was held jointly while the 
Caithness one was only sometimes so held. The Earldom of Caithness could be (and 
frequently was) disposed of by the Kings of Scots to different persons in the lifetime of 
the original grantee or grantee's heir, either jointly or solely, which makes it pointless, 
however tempting, to assign any ordinal numbering to the Earldom at this time. 
[Burke's Peerage]

-------------------------

NORSE PREDECESSORS of the EARLS of ORKNEY - subject to King of Norway until 
after 1379

Sigurd II Digri, as Jarl of Orkney and Caithness, In the winter of 988-89 he went from 
Hrossey (Pomona or Mainland of Orkney) to Caithness in order to fight Earl Hundi and 
Earl Melsnati, who had slain his brother-in-law Havard, his Steward for Caithness, at 
Freswick, and he defeated them at Dungalspeak. Melsnati was killed and Hundi fled 
and was pursued "until they learned that Malcolm, the Scottish King, was collecting 
an army at Duncansby." Before 995 Sigurd defeated "Findlaech, the Earl of the 
Scots," at the second battle of Skidmoor in Caithness, and in return for their support 
gave back to his Orkneymen the udal rights which they had surrendered to his great-
grandfather, Jarl Turf-Einar, in the summer of (?) 895. At this time, in addition to 
Orkney, Shetland and Caithness, he had "this dominion in Scotland, Ross and Moray, 
Sutherland and the Dales," and "laid a tax on the inhabited lands of Man." He 
frequently engaged in piracy among the Sudreys and on the coasts of Scotland and 
Ireland. In 995 under great pressure from Olaf Tryggvesson, who was on his way to 
become King of Norway (995-1000), Sigurd and the Orkneymen accepted baptism. He 
made an alliance with King Olaf Tryggvesson, in virtue of which the payment of tribute 
to Norway on the udal lands in Orkney was discontinued; and after his son Hundi-
Hiodve’s death, while a hostage in Norway, he paid no allegiance to the King. He 
made alliance with Sihtric Silkbeard, King of Dublin (who came to Hrossey before Yule 
1013), against Brian, High King of Ireland (1002-1014), who had married Sihtric’s 
mother, Gormflaeth (da. of Morugh MacFinn, King of Leinster (?) 965-972). By this 
alliance, which was instigated by Gormflaeth, who was "bitter against King Brian," 
King Sihtric agreed that if they killed King Brian, Sigurd should marry Gormflaeth and 
be High King of Ireland. Sigurd landed at Dublin on Palm Wednesday (21 Apr. 1014] 
and was killed at the battle of Clontarf on Good Friday [23 Apr. 1014]. He had three 
sons by an unnamed mother or mothers: Somerled, Brusi and Einar Rangmund 
(Wrymouth). By Donada, dau. of Malcolm MacKenneth, King of Scots, whom he m. 
probably in or after 1005, he had a 4th son, Thorfinn, who was b. circa 1009. Sigurd, 
who had left his three elder sons to rule Orkney, when he started for Dublin, was suc. 
in Orkney by all three, who divided the Earldom among themselves; but Caithness and 
Sutherland were seized by King Malcolm MacKenneth for (their half-brother) his 
grandson Thorfinn whom he created Earl of Caithness in 1014, and he "set men to 
govern the dominion with him." [Complete Peerage, X:Appendix A:8-9]

Parents
THORFINNSSON Hlodver (Lodver) (ABT  924 - ABT  980)
KJARVALSSDOTTIR Audna (Ethne) (Edna) (ABT  930 - )

Siblings
HLODVERSSON Sigurd II "Digri" (ABT  965 - 23 Apr 1014)

Marriage To ----- ----- ()
    m.  

Notes


Children by ----- ----- 
SIGURDSON Brusi (ABT  988 - AFT 31 Aug 1030)

Marriage To MACKENNETH Anleta "Thora Donada" (ABT  986 - )
    m.  

Notes

Parents
MACKENNETH Malcolm II (ABT  955 - 25 Nov 1034)
MCBRIAN Blanaid (ABT  968 - )

Children by MACKENNETH Anleta "Thora Donada" ABT  986 - 
SIGURDSSON Thorfinn II "the Black" (1009 - 1064)

Produced by Fzip 1.7 6/20/2017