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The Isle of Man. 171
the Scottish ishiiuls uiuU'r his subjection. The hist of Crovan's
nice who ruled in Man was Magnus. After tlie battle of Largs
he ri'jectetl the suzerainty of Norway, and did homage to Alexander
Tir. of Scotland. He died childless in 1265, and the Scottish
King took possession of the island. Most people have heard
of the three armed legs which constitute the arms of Man— two legs
for stjinding and one for kicking—and to which the motto is appended—
Quocunque jeceris stabit—whichever way you throw it,
it will stand. Well, it was Alexander of Scotland who gave that
heraldic symbol to the Manx Kingdom. The island at the death
of Magnus had been fully three hundred years under stringent
Norse rule, and yet the Manx people emerged from that long subjection
as Celtic as they had been in the time of Gildas. Their
language has adopted many words from English, but it has scarcely
retained a Scandiiiavian word beyond a few names of places and
of institutions, such as the Tynwald. Even the strange word
"Taxiaxi" is said to be Gaelic— meaning guardians or senators
and to derive itself from "taisg" or "teagasg."
Man fell under the suzerainty of King Edward Longshanks
during the war of conquest he carried on with Scotland. It looks
as if he carried out, or, at least, instigated, the insular revolution
by countenancing the claims of a pretender with a purely Celtic
name to the Tynvald Throne. When the great Edward died the
little Edward, his son, chucked Man back and forward, like a prize
of little value, among three of his favourites— Piers de Gaveston,
Gilbert Mac Gascall, and Henry de Beaumont. Bruce descended
upon Man with ships and warriors from Galloway, Ayr, and
Argyle in the year 1313. He drove out the English, subdued the
island, and gave it to his nephew, Randolph, Earl of Moray.
William Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, married Mary, the female
heiress of the Crovan dynasty, and Edward the Third, allowing her
claim, aided Salisbury, who took Man from Randolph's heirs in
1344. He was crowned King of Man with great pomi), but he
afterwards sold his kingdom to Sir William le Scroop. The buyer
was attainted for treason, and Man was again chucked from hand
to hand, until it was granted to Sir John Stanley in 1400. Sir
John Stanley, the founder of the Derby family, reduced the
"breast law" of his insular kingdom to writing. He found the
island, to a great extent, lying waste, and the population small and
distressed. He encouraged tillage and lishing industry, and
modified the harsh customs which had come down from the
Scandinavian conquerors. Upon the whole, the Stanley dynasty
of Kings in Man, beginning in 1406 and ending in 1736, gave
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