Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

HISTORY OF THE WKSTEKN ISLANDS. 53
men error of supposing^ that this was a defeat of such a
nature as to overturn the Norwegian power in Scotland.
The losses which the fleet and the array sustained were in
fact trifling- ; and the only event of any importance which
immediately followed it, was the natural death of Haco
in Orkney. The secession of Norway from Scotland was
the result of negotiations, the continuation of those com-
menced by Alexander the second ;
negotiations to which
the high spirit of Haco was averse, but which were at
length brought to a conclusion under his feeble and more
indolent successor. The relative situations of Scotland,
of the Isles, and of Norway, had become then materially
changed. The latter had long derived no revenue from
its islands, and was, on the contrary, involved by them in
trouble and expense. Many of the chiefs also owed double
allegiance, to Norway and to Scotland both; while, to
add to that, their allegiance to the former was frequently
given with reluctance, or altogether withheld. Hence
flowed the success of the Scottish proposals ; and the
battle of Largs, as it is improperly called, so much
vaunted as a splendid victory of Scottish over Norwe-
gian arms, can only, therefore, be considered as an inci-
dental event, concurring with, and possibly influencing,
the negotiations between the two Crowns, but not as the
triumph of the one over the other.
The account which Buchanan, among others, gives of
it, is plainly fabulous, even if we chose to doubt the
fidelitj' of the Norwegian writers. I have formerly shown
that there was nothing that could be called a pitched
battle, far less one on which the fate of a kingdom could
have depended. The conduct of Haco in the settlement
of the Isles after that skirmish, proves that he retained the
undisputed dominion. Nor was there any dispute at Largs
about the outer Isles, the real kingdom of the Sudereys
;