25.3 Europe: a.d. 1001 to 1100  (Page 9/11)

Malcom III Canmore's second wife, Margaret, was a descendant of King Alfred and a grand niece of Edward the Confessor and with her to Scotland came Edgar Atheling, heir to the English throne. The marriage, however, did not prevent Edward from burning Northumbria and it didn't keep William the Conqueror from continuing a terrible slaughter in that province in his turn. Malcolm retaliated with a vicious raid of Cumbria, taking thousands of English to serve as Scottish slaves. In spite of these invasions and counter-invasions, Normanization of Scotland was soon under way, initiated by the gentle guidance of Margaret and the Norman-English who eventually filled her court. Upon Malcolm III's death in 1093, probably by treachery, his brother Donald Bane and his sons, Duncan II and Edgar, finished out the century on the throne. Donald Bane was the last Celtic king of Scotland, because Duncan II and Edgar, only one-half Scot by parentage, were truly Anglo-Saxon in thought and character. (Ref. 119 , 170 )

Ireland

Brian Boru (or Boruma) of Munster was an early century leader who promoted the development of roads and forts. In 1014 he defeated the Vikings at Clontarf, although he was killed in the battle. Thereafter some Norse remained in the cities but they no longer dominated the country and soon most withdrew to various Scottish islands, letting Ireland revert to a Celtic culture. Dublin did remain the chief market of the Scandinavians in the west. After Clontarf there followed a short period of revival of art and literature before another era of civil wars started. The next attempt at union was by Diarmat, who became king of Leinster in the 1040s. (Ref. 8 )

Wales

In 1039 the Welsh prince, Gruffydd of Gwynedd and Powys, defeatedan encroaching English force and Wales was left alone for nearly 25 years. In 1063, however,

Harold, then heir to the English throne, with the help of his brother Tostig of Northumbria, conquered Wales again by defeating Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. (Ref. 222 )

Scandinavia

After conversion to Christianity the restless energy of the Vikings quickly evaporated, although as marine merchants they did expand the Frisian-North Sea traffic in fish, wine, beer, salt and metals and carried these products on into the Atlantic. (Ref. 8 , 139 ) Additional Notes

Norway

After the death of Olaf I Trygvesson in A.D. 1000 there was a period of feudal disruption in Norway until Olaf II took control in 1016. This Olaf II, also called Olaf the Big, like his predecessors, tried to convert his subjects to Christianity by savage and bloody means and he was killed in 1028 while fighting against his own rebellious subjects. At about this same time, young King Canute, as monarch of both England and Denmark, also laid claim to the Norwegian throne and was probably encouraged by those Norwegians who were antagonistic to Olaf. The local, on the spot rulers of Norway in the years immediately after Olaf II's death, however, were so inept that the people began to think much more kindly of their dead king and, recalling that at the moment of his death there was an eclipse of the sun, they began to feel that Olaf's God was angry. With the help of English and German missionaries they then became Christians and in the next century even canonized Olaf. In 1035, under Magnus the Good, the Norwegians finally eliminated all Danish claims to their throne, achieving complete independence. Additional Notes