(Vol. vii., p. 105.)
It gives me much pleasure to be enabled to inform your correspondent
KIRKWALLENSIS that there is no fear of our losing these islands in the
manner suggested by him, they having been renounced by Denmark nearly four
hundred years ago, as will be seen from the following sketch.
The Orkneys were taken from the Picts about A.D. 838, by Kenneth II., king
of Scotland, to which kingdom they were attached until 1099, when Donald
VIII., surnamed Bane, brother to Malcolm Canmore, usurped the crown, to the
prejudice of his nephews Edgar, Alexander, and David; and requiring
assistance to maintain his position, he applied to Magnus, king of Norway,
to whom, says Skene, "for help and supply he gave all the isles of Scotland
(Camden says the Orkneys only), where, through and for other causes, many
bloody battles were fought, until the battle of Larges, 3rd August, 1260,
in the time of Alexander III. of Scotland, and Acho, king of Norway." The
Scots proving victorious, Magnus of Norway, son and successor of Acho, made
peace with Alexander, and renounced and discharged all right and title
which he or his successors had, or might have or pretend, to the isles of
Scotland, the king of Scotland paying therefor yearly to the said Magnus
and his successors one hundred marks of sterling money. This contract was
confirmed in 1312 by Haquin V. of Norway and Robert I. of Scotland. In 1426
Eric X. of Denmark renewed with James I. of Scotland these ancient
treaties, particularly with regard to the Western Isles; the pension or
annuity having been long omitted to be paid, Eric now freely gave it up to
James; and thus, in appearance, the Orkneys were finally confirmed to
Scotland; but virtually it was not so until 1468, when, says Skene, "at
last the said annual, with all the arrearages and by-runs thereof, was
discharged and renounced _simpliciter_, in the contract of marriage between
King James III. and Margaret, daughter of Christian I., king of Norway,
Denmark, and Sweden, on the 8th of September, 1468; which discharge is not
only ratified, but renewed thereafter by the said king, on the 12th May,
1469. It appears that James III., on the 24th February, 1483, commanded his
ambassador sent to the Pope to desire a confirmation of the said perpetual
renunciation and discharge of the contribution of the Isles."
According to Dr. Wallace's account (1700), King Christian agreed that the
isles of Orkney and Zetland should remain in the possession of King James
and his successors, as the Princess Margaret's dower, until either King
Christian or his successors should pay to King James or his successors the
sum of fifty thousand florins of the Rhine; but in the year following,
hearing of his daughter's delivery of a prince at Edinburgh, he "for joy
thereof renounced for ever to the crown of Scotland all right or claim to
the said isles."