medieval-atlas/regional-and-local/449

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Orkney and Caithness The enormous loss of power and influence suffered by the Norse earls of Orkney and Caithness is illustrated in this map. The problems experienced by Harald Maddadson and the forfeiture ofShetland have been discussed in the commentary to the previous map. His son, Earl John, was antagonistic to the church's policy of tithe exaction and allowed himself to be associated with the attack on Bishop Adam which resulted in the bishop's death by burning in his own manor house at Halkirk in 1222, and the subsequent avenging expedition of King Alexander to the north. The immediate result was the imposition of a heavy fine and the loss of lands by both the earl and those men of Caithness convicted of responsibility for the crime. Another very significant result was the moving of the main diocesan church to a safer location in Sutherland, where a cathedral was built at Dornoch. This was done by Gilbert de Moravia, appointed Bishop Adam's successor, whose relatives were already in possession oflands and rights in Sutherland, which was detached from the earl of Caithness' sphere of influence and erected into a separate earldom about 1235. Finally, the Scottish king was able to benefit from a very confused period of inheritance of the Caithness and Orkney earldoms, when the direct line died out and heiresses from the Scottish house of Angus inherited, one of whom, nobilis mulier domina Joanna, was married to another member of the de Moravia family and given half of the earldom lands in Caithness, which can be traced in the hands of her descimdants. The earls, left with a fraction of their former power and influence on the north Scottish mainland, were confined henceforth to the heartland of the former earls' dominion, the Orkney Islands. ~ Annexed by King Sverre of Norway 1195 Division of the earldom lands with Lady Joanna (wife of Freskin de Moravia) who held Strathnaver in her own right, c. 1240 Confiscation ofSutherland" which was erected into an earldomfor William de Moravia, c. 1235. Erected into a Cathedral by Bishop Ross Gilbert de Moravia, early 1230. Cathedral + Church U Earldom castle o I o 25, 10 20 kms 50 ,, 30 75, , 50 100 , , 60 ... Bishopric residence miles Reduction of the earldoms of Orkney and Caithness BEe 449

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