30 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



land. About 1160, this famous freebooter, with all his 

 men, was killed in an ambuscade at Dublin, which he had 

 captured and looted. 



Before his death, Godred of Man nominated as his 

 successor, his son Olave, who is known as Olave the Black. 

 But the Manxmen elected Olave's natural brother, 

 Reginald, to act as Regent during his minority. The 

 first campaign of the Regent, undertaken in 1205 on 

 behalf of his patron, John de Courcy, against his enemy, 

 Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Ulster, ended in disaster. About 

 100 vessels, most of them from the Hebrides, sailed for 

 Strandford Haven, where the invaders landed and be- 

 sieged Rath Castle, but being attacked in the rear by 

 Walter de Lacy, with an army of Gallow-glasses (Gillean- 

 glasa) they were forced to retire with heavy loss. Five 

 years after this defeat, Angus, the third son of Somerled 

 the Great, made a bold attempt to snatch the Nordereys 

 from Reginald's rule, but was repulsed in Skye, and was 

 afterwards defeated and killed in Man.* 



The looseness of the ties that bound Norway to the 

 Isles is exemplified by the fact that Reginald had become 

 a vassal of the English King, whether for the Hebrides as 

 well as for Irish fiefs which he probably held, is not quite 

 clear. In recognition of his homage, he was to receive an 

 annual knight's fee, payable at Drogheda, of two tuns of 

 wine and 120 quarters of corn. He was also appointed 

 " Admiral of the Seas " which may mean the Irish 

 Channel and on the principle of setting a thief to catch a 

 thief, probably no better choice could have been made for 

 the suppression of piracy. In 1219 he surrendered the 

 overlordship of Man to the Pope, agreeing to pay as the 

 reward of his protection by the all-powerful See of Rome, 

 the sum of 12 merks annually to Furness Abbey, an 

 institution of which Olave the Red had been a liberal 

 benefactor. This submission to the Papacy may have 

 been a temporary expedient, but it served its purpose of 



* According to some accounts he was killed in Skye. 



