Magnus, II

Appointed Jarl of Orkney by by King Haakon IV of Norway in 1236. Parentage uncertain, wife or wives unknown. Probably related to the Earls of Angus.

NORSE PREDECESSORS of the EARLS of ORKNEY - subject to King of Norway until after 1379

Magnus II, son of the Earl of Angus (b), Jarl of Orkney and Earl of half of Caithness. He received the south half of Caithness from King Alexander II, and as "Earl of Katanay" witnessed a charter 7 July 1235 given by that King to Patrick, 5th Earl of Dunbar. He d. 1239. [Complete Peerage, X:Appendix A:28-9]

(b) The parentage of Jarl Magnus II is uncertain, as is also his relationship to his predecessors in Orkney and Caithness. Sir James Dalrymple in his "Collections" states, without giving authority, that he was son of Gilbride, 2nd Earl of Angus, but in the inventory of Oliphant Writs in the Central Register House he is described as son of Gilchrist, 4th Earl of Angus. The former theory is accepted by CP under Angus, vol I, p. 145, and the latter is preferred by CP under Caithness, vol II, p. 475. An examination of the dates suggests that the second theory is the more plausible, as Gilbride, 2nd Earl of Angus, was old enough to fight in the Battle of the Standard (22 Aug 1138) and d. circa 1187, having had an eldest son old enough to witness a charter in 1164, whereas Gilchrist's wife is not known, but from the fact that Jarl Magnus II bore a name which does not appear among the descendants of Jarl Paul I (d. 1099) and is associated with the younger line of Jarl Erlend II (d. 1099) it may be suggested that Magnus's mother was a member of that branch. Jarl Kali-Ragnvald III (d. 1158) left only a daughter Ingigerd, who m. Eric Slagbrellir in 1156, and was mother of Jarl Harald III Ungi (d. 1198), Magnus Mangi, Ranald, and two daughters Ingibiorg and Ragnhild, the mother of Snaekoll Gunnisson, who claimed estates in Orkney. The daughter of a marriage celebrated in 1156 would not be an impossible bride for a man born probably inter 1110 and 1120, but is more likely to have been the wife of that man's son. The fact that Snaekoll Gunnisson did not claim to be Jarl of Orkney in 1231 suggests that a senior representative with a superior claim was known to exist, and a son of the elder sister Ingibiorg would have had a better claim than Snaekoll as son of the younger sister. The fact that Malcolm, son of Duncan, 5th Earl of Angus, son of Gilchrist, 4th Earl of Angus, succeeded to Angus and not to Orkney and Caithness suggests that Duncan was not the son of Ingibiorg, who may therefore have been the second wife of Gilchrist, and that her son Magnus was called after the famous saint in her mother's family and after her own younger brother. (http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jweber&id..., source not cited.)