Early Middle Ages stone from the Isle of Man. Text reads BIVAIDONAS MAQI MUCOI CUNAVA[LI]; in English: Of Bivaidonas, son of the tribe Cunava[li]. In the
late Roman period, there was strong
Irish (Gaelic) influence throughout the Irish Sea, as well as Irish raiding and settlement on the west coast of Britain. The Romans referred to these Irish
Gaels as
Scoti. The Roman historian
Orosius wrote in the
5th century that the Isle of Man () was inhabited by the Irish. The
Annals of Ulster record an Irish expedition to the Isle of Man by the
Ulaid in AD 577, followed by their withdrawal the following year. The annals say that the Ulaid king
Báetán mac Cairill (572–581) had "cleared" the Isle of Man, which could mean that he expelled the Conailli from the island. According to Manx tradition,
Saint Patrick was responsible for converting the island to Christianity. He is said to have sent
Germanus and the Irish missionary
Maughold (Macc Cuill) to the island in the 5th century.
Muirchú's 7th century
Life of Patrick says that when Macc Cuill landed on the island, there were already Christians. Their spiritual leaders were Conindrus and Rumilus, which seem to be
Romano-British names. From the 7th century, there is evidence of
Celtic Britons on the Isle of Man, and possible Brittonic control over the island. In the 8th century, Anglo-Saxon historian
Bede wrote that Britons dwelt on the island. Hiberno-Norse coins were first minted under Sihtric,
King of Dublin. This illustrates that Mann may have been under the thumb of Dublin at this time. Little is known about the conqueror,
Godred Crovan. According to the
Chronicon Manniae he subdued Dublin, and a great part of
Leinster, and held the Scots in such subjection that supposedly no one who set out to build a vessel dared to insert more than three bolts. The memory of such a ruler would be likely to survive in tradition, and it seems probable therefore that he is the person commemorated in Manx legend under the name of King Gorse or Orry. He created the
Kingdom of Mann and the Isles in around 1079 including the south-western islands of Scotland until 1164, when two separate kingdoms were formed from it. In 1154, later known as the
Diocese of Sodor and Man, was formed by the
Catholic Church. The islands under his rule were called the (South isles, in contrast to the North isles", i.e. Orkney and
Shetland), consisting of the
Hebrides, all the smaller western islands of
Scotland, and Mann. At a later date his successors took the title of (
King of Mann and of the Isles). The kingdom's capital was on
St Patrick's Isle, where
Peel Castle was built on the site of a Celtic monastery.
Olaf, Godred's son, exercised considerable power and according to the Chronicle, maintained such close alliance with the kings of Ireland and Scotland that no one ventured to disturb the Isles during his time (1113–1152). In 1156 his son
Godred (reigned 1153–1158), who for a short period also ruled over Dublin, lost the smaller islands off the coast of Argyll as a result of a quarrel with
Somerled (the ruler of
Argyll). An independent sovereignty thus appeared between the two divisions of his kingdom. "In the 1130s the Catholic Church sent a small mission to establish the first
bishopric on the Isle of Man, and appointed
Wimund as the first bishop. He soon afterwards embarked with a band of followers on a career of murder and looting throughout Scotland and the surrounding islands." During the whole of the Scandinavian period, the Isles remained nominally under the suzerainty of the
Kings of Norway but the Norwegians only occasionally asserted it with any vigour. The first such king to assert control over the region was likely
Magnus Barelegs, at the turn of the 12th century. It was not until Hakon Hakonarson's 1263 expedition that another king returned to the Isles.
Decline of Norse rule From the middle of the 12th century until 1217 the suzerainty had remained of a very shadowy character; Norway had become a prey to civil dissensions. But after that date it became a reality, and Norway consequently came into collision with the growing power of the
kingdom of Scotland. Early in the 13th century, when
Ragnald (reigned 1187–1229) paid homage to King
John of England (reigned 1199–1216), we hear for the first time of English intervention in the affairs of Mann. But a period of Scots domination would precede the establishment of full English control. Finally, in 1261,
Alexander III of Scotland sent envoys to Norway to negotiate for the cession of the isles, but their efforts led to no result. He therefore initiated a war, which ended in the indecisive
Battle of Largs against the Norwegian fleet in 1263. However, the Norwegian king
Haakon Haakonsson died the following winter, and this allowed King Alexander to bring the war to a successful conclusion.
Magnus Olafsson, King of Mann and the Isles (reigned 1252–1265), who had campaigned on the Norwegian side, had to surrender all the islands over which he had ruled, except Mann, for which he did
homage. Two years later Magnus died and in 1266 King
Magnus VI of Norway ceded the islands, including Mann, to Scotland in the
Treaty of Perth in consideration of the sum of 4,000
marks (known as in Scotland) and an
annuity of 100 marks. But Scotland's rule over Mann did not become firmly established until 1275, when the Manx suffered defeat in the decisive
Battle of Ronaldsway, near
Castletown.
English dominance In 1290 King
Edward I of England sent
Walter de Huntercombe to seize possession of Mann, and it remained in English hands until 1313, when
Robert Bruce took it after besieging
Castle Rushen for five weeks. In about 1333 King
Edward III of England granted Mann to
William de Montacute, 3rd
Baron Montacute (later the 1st
Earl of Salisbury), as his absolute possession, without reserving any service to be rendered to him. Then, in 1346, the
Battle of Neville's Cross decided the long struggle between England and Scotland in England's favour. King
David II of Scotland, Robert Bruce's last male heir, had been captured in the Battle of Neville's Cross and ransomed; however, when Scotland was unable to raise one of the ransom instalments, David made a secret agreement with King
Edward III of England to cancel it, in return for transferring the Scottish kingdom to an English prince. Following the secret agreement, there followed a confused period when Mann sometimes experienced English rule and sometimes Scottish. In 1388 the island was "ravaged" by
Sir William Douglas of Nithsdale on his way home from the destruction of the town of
Carlingford. In 1392 William de Montacute's son sold the island, including sovereignty, to Sir
William le Scrope. In 1399
Henry Bolinbroke brought about the beheading of Le Scrope, who had taken the side of
Richard II when Bolinbroke usurped the throne and appointed himself Henry IV. The island then came into the de facto possession of Henry, who granted it to
Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland; but following the latter's later attainder, Henry IV, in 1405, made a lifetime grant of it, with the patronage of the bishopric, to Sir
John Stanley. In 1406 this grant was extended – on a
feudatory basis under the English Crown – to Sir John's heirs and assigns, the feudal fee being the service of rendering
homage and
two falcons to all future Kings of England on their
coronations. ==Early Modern period==