tain pilots for King Hakon,[10] while
Dougal of the Isles met them in Orkney, and was let into the secret of
Hakon's intended expedition.

Meantime Earl Magnus II, being, according to our conjectures, a member
of the Angus line, whose mother was an elder sister of Harald Ungi,
and being also the husband of Earl John's daughter, had become
entitled to the earldom of Orkney soon after Earl John's death in
1231, and probably since 1236 had held part of Caithness as Earl, by
heirship, and by charter from the Scottish King. Magnus II, soon after
the earldom of Sutherland had been taken away from him, had died
in 1239. Gillebride had then succeeded to both the reduced Scottish
earldom of Caithness and the whole of the Orkney jarldom as successor
in the Angus line of Magnus II; and Gillebride had died in 1256
leaving a son Magnus III. Like his predecessors, Magnus III seems to
have found himself in the awkward position of being bound to serve two
masters who were rapidly approaching a state of war with each other.
Freskin de Moravia, _dominus_ de Duffus by 1248, who about that date
had married the Lady Johanna, had with her obtained not only her lands
in Strathnaver and Caithness, but also the bulk of the Erlend share
of the earldom lands of Caithness, while Magnus held the rest of
Caithness, and William, second Earl of Sutherland, then a mere boy,
had succeeded to that earldom on his father's death in 1248.[11]

As already stated, Alexander II's attempt on the Sudreys had proved
abortive through his death in 1249, and the further attacks on them
in Alexander III's reign by William, son of Ferchar Mac-in-tagart, and
Earl of Ross, had been made in 1261; and by 1262 or 1263, Freskin
had died, leaving two daughters Mary and Christian, both minors and
unmarried, to inherit his share of Caithness, as co-parceners, each
entitled to one quarter of that county.

Early in 1263 Magnus III of Orkney and Caithness, was in Bergen with
King Hakon. For the Saga says,[12] "with him from Bergen came Magnus,
Jarl of Orkney, and the king gave him a good long-ship."

Sailing from Norway in the end of July 1263, King Hakon found a
fair wind, and crossed in two days to Shetland, where he lay for a
fortnight assembling his fleet in Bressay Sound off Lerwick. While he
was here Jon Langlifson, son of Langlif, the youngest daughter of Earl
Harold Maddadson, brought the disappointing news that King John of the
Sudreys had gone over to the side of th