Lords of Mann - Manx Middle Ages - 1265 AD to 1765 AD
Norse power in the west was finally ended in the naval battle at Largs, on the Clyde, in 1263 when the Norse fleet of King Haakon (supported by Magnus King of Man and the Isles) was defeated by the Scottish fleet of Alexander III. Scotland seized the Western Isles. Alexander allowed Magnus to continue to rule Man until his death in 1265, when Scotland assumed rule of the Isle of Man. A final Manx rebellion against the Scots, supporting Godred, the son of Magnus, ended in Scottish victory in a battle at Ronaldsway in 1275 in which Godred died. This ended the male line of the Manx Norse dynasty.
For more than a century the Isle of Man, during the Anglo-Scottish wars, passed between Scotland and England. Rule was usually placed in the hands of a Lord, appointed by the King of Scotland or England. During this troubled period the Island was captured by the Scottish army of Robert the Bruce in 1313.
Later in the 14th century, when England once more seized the Island, the Lordship - indeed kingship - was given to the Montacute family, Earls of Salisbury, and they strengthened its defences, notably at Castle Rushen .
In 1405 the Lordship was granted to Sir John Stanley, whose descendants (later the Earls of Derby) ruled the Isle of Man for over 300 years. The military defences continued to be strengthened, in particular by the construction of a massive curtain wall at Peel Castle in the mid 15th century. The lordship passed through a female line to the Dukes of Athol in 1736, and was eventually purchased by the British Crown in 1765.
Medieval sites in the Isle of Man include Castle Rushen , Peel Castle, Castletown Grammar School and Rushen Abbey.
A selection of Medieval objects -
For more information see -
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