Ward & Lock's descriptive and pictorial guide to the Isle of Man ...

Guide to the Isle of Man.the Tynwald Courts, and the division of the island into" sheadings."Some of the successors of Orry api^ear to have got theworst of it in their quarrels witli the English, for amongthe captive kings who rowed in King Edgar's boat on theDee was Macon or Hacon, King of Man. At the time ofthe Norman conquest, 10(36, Godred, son of Sybrie (Godredwith the white hand) ruled in the island, and after himcame his three sons, the elder of whom, having put out theeyes of his next brother as a punishment for rebellion,repented, went to the Holy Land, and there died. Theyounger brother being a youth, some of the principal menof the island asked Murrough O'Brien, King of Ireland, tosend them a king. He selected his nephew, Donald JNIacTeige,but the Manxmen soon had enough of him and he wasexpelled. A Norwegian chief, Ingemund, attempted to seizethe island, and obtained a partial support, the result beinga war in which the north took part against the south, thewomen of the south taking part in the fight, and acquittingthemselves so well, that the privilege was granted to them ofbequeathing half of their property independently of theirhusbands.We find a record of one MacManus, " governor " aboutlOOG, who founded a Cistercian Abbey at Rushen, whichexisted for some time after the general suppression of themonastic houses in Great Britain. In 10'J8, Morgan, kingof Norway, subdued the island and proceeded to invadeIreland, but was killed immediately he landed. Tlie youngprince, Olave, was the acknowledged king, and for fortyyears, it is said, reigned prosperously; but at length anambitious nephew, Jveginald, raised a rebellion, and withhis own hand killed tlie king in an encounter near Ilamsey.So run some of the histories, more or less authentic, butit is difficult to make the dates given fit nicely. Ileginald" the usurper," it is stated, did homage to King John ofEngland for the Isle of Man, and in the letters of the Englishking, Reginald is styled "Lord of Man ;" but in 121 D,when he acknowledged the supremacy of Pope Honorius, heis styled " King of the Isle of Man." This must have beenabout eighty years after the death of King Olave by thehand of Reginald, according to the dates given; and whenwe further read that another Olave, Regir aid's brother,fomented a civil war, in the course of which Reginald waakilled in a battle near Tynwald Hill, and that this Olavedied in 1287, six or eight years later still, we find it still