General Notes

EARLDOM of ORKNEY [NOR] - subject to King of Norway until after 1379

RAGNVALD I the Wise, called the Morejarl, son of Eystein Glumra, Jarl of the Uplanders in Norway, grandson of Ivar son of Halfdan the Old, was made Jarl of North and South More and of Raumsdal in Norway by King Harald Haarfagri after his victory of Solskiel circa 869 over Hunthiof, King of More, and Nokve, King of Raumsdal. In that year he surprised Vermund, King of Fiordeland, at Notsdal and burned him in his hall with 90 men. Later King Harald married his sister Swanhilda and had issue, In (?) 874 King Harald made an expedition to the Nordreys (Orkney and Shetland) to enforce his authority over those who had fled thither in order to escape from it in Norway. Either during this expedition or previously at the battle of Hafrsfiord circa 872 Ivar, the eldest son of Ragnvald, was killed and the King gave the Orkneys and Shetlands to Ragnvald as compensation. When the King started home for Norway, (?) Spring 875, Ragnvald, who went with him, gave the islands to his brother Sigurd, and the King confirmed the transfer, Ragnvald was surprised in his hall and burned alive circa 894 by Halfdan Haaleg and Gudred Liomi, King Harald's sons by Snaefrid, dau. of Swasi.

By his wife Ragnhild, dau. of Hrolf Nefia, he had 3 sons: Ivar, who was killed in battle ut supra, Rolf the Ganger, afterwards 1st Duke of Normandy, and Thori the Silent, who was made Jarl of More in succession to his father by King Harald Haarfagri circa 894, after Gudred Liomi, who had seized More on the death of Jarl Ragnvald, had been dispossessed by the King. By an earlier union with a nameless girl, whose kindred were all slave-born, Ragnvald had 3 sons, described as bastards: Hallad, 4th Earl of Orkney, Turf-Einar, 5th Earl of Orkney, and Hrollaug, an unwarlike man, who settled at Eyiafiord in Iceland and had issue.  [Complete Peerage, X:Appendix A:3-4]

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Rogenwald was a supporter of King Harold Harfagr, and assisted him in obtaining the mastery over the other independent Norwegian chiefs, and in establishing himself as King of all Norway. He was Earl of More and Raumdahl in Norway, and in 888, he obtained from King Harold a grant of the Orkney and Shetland islands. One of his sons, Rollo, conquered Neustria, founded the line of sovereign Dukes of Normandy, and was ancestor to William the Conqueror. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 492, Sinclair, Earl of Orkney]