Jon Haraldsson - Earl of Orkney I

• Preferred Name: Jon Haraldsson - Earl of Orkney I^{[1] [2]}
  
• Gender: M
  
• FSID: LCV8-P61
  
• http://familysearch.org/v1/TitleOfNobility: Jarl of Orkney - jointly with brother DavidBET 1206 AND 1214 with note: copied from merge
  
• http://familysearch.org/v1/TitleOfNobility: Jarl of Orkney - aloneBET 1214 AND 1231
  
• Jon+Haraldsson+-+Norwegian+noble+served+as+the+Jarl+of+Orkney+between+1206+and+1231.: with note: Description: Jon Haraldsson was a Norwegian noble who served as the Jarl of Orkney between 1206 and 1231. Jon Haraldsson and his brother David were the sons of Harald Maddadsson with his second wife Hvarflod, daughter of Earl Máel Coluim of Moray. Jon and David were joint Earls of Orkney after the death of their father in 1206. David Haraldsson died of sickness in 1214, leaving Jon Haraldsson to rule alone. William the Lion, king of Scotland, took Jon's daughter hostage in August 1214 as part of a peace agreement with the new sole Earl.[1] In 1222, Jon Haraldsson was implicated, indirectly, in the burning of Adam, the Bishop of Caithness, in his hall at Halkirk by local farmers. At this time, Caithness was part of the Jarldom of Orkney, within the Kingdom of Norway. When the farmers had complained to the Jarl about the Bishop's increase in the butter tithe, Jon had been disinterested in their concerns, but being annoyed by the Bishop for other reasons, he declared: The devil take the bishop and his butter; you may roast him if you please! A contemporary chronicler, Boethius the Dane, blamed Jon for the Adam's death. Nevertheless, Jon swore oaths to his own innocence, and was pardoned. It was, though, King Alexander II of Scotland who undertook reprisals against the farmers for the killing; the Jarl was restrained in his ability to object to Alexander's interference, when Pope Honorius III declared his satisfaction at the reprisals. Snaekoll Gunnisson, a great-grandson of Rognvald Kali, demanded that Jon Haraldsson should share the Earldom with him. The supporters of Jon and Snaekoll fought a war until it was agreed that King Haakon IV of Norway should settle the matter. All concerned set off to Norway, but a ship carrying Jon Haraldsson, his supporters and his kin, was lost at sea on the return voyage during 1231.[citation needed]. An alternative version of Earl John's demise is that he was resident in Thurso, and had his hall burnt around him. He escaped to a cellar only to be Additional, fulsome background information with citations.
  
• Birth: 1158 in Orkney Islands, Orkney, Scotland at LATI: N9 LONG: E3 with note: Standardized.
  
• Death: 1231 in Thurso, Caithness, Scotland at LATI: N8.5937 LONG: E3.5213 with note: GEDCOM data
  
• Notes:

  === Life Sketch ===
  Jon Haraldsson was a Norwegian noble who served as the Jarl of Orkney between 1206 and 1231. Jon Haraldsson and his brother David were the sons of Harald Maddadsson with his second wife Hvarflod, daughter of Earl Máel Coluim of Moray. Jon and David were joint Earls of Orkney after the death of their father in 1206. David Haraldsson died of sickness in 1214, leaving Jon Haraldsson to rule alone. William the Lion, king of Scotland, took Jon's daughter hostage in August 1214 as part of a peace agreement with the new sole Earl.
  
  In 1222, Jon Haraldsson was implicated, indirectly, in the burning of Adam, the Bishop of Caithness, in his hall at Halkirk by local farmers. At this time, Caithness was part of the Jarldom of Orkney, within the Kingdom of Norway. When the farmers had complained to the Jarl about the Bishop's increase in the butter tithe, Jon had been disinterested in their concerns, but being annoyed by the Bishop for other reasons, he declared:
  "The devil take the bishop and his butter; you may roast him if you please!."
  
  A contemporary chronicler, Boethius the Dane, blamed Jon for the Adam's death. Nevertheless, Jon swore oaths to his own innocence, and was pardoned. It was, though, King Alexander II of Scotland who undertook reprisals against the farmers for the killing; the Jarl was restrained in his ability to object to Alexander's interference, when Pope Honorius III declared his satisfaction at the reprisals.
  
  Snaekoll Gunnisson, a great-grandson of Rognvald Kali, demanded that Jon Haraldsson should share the Earldom with him. The supporters of Jon and Snaekoll fought a war until it was agreed that King Haakon IV of Norway should settle the matter. All concerned set off to Norway, but a ship carrying Jon Haraldsson, his supporters and his kin, was lost at sea on the return voyage during 1231.
  
  An alternative version of Earl John's demise is that he was resident in Thurso, and had his hall burnt around him. He escaped to a cellar only to be mortally wounded by Hanef, quaestor to the King of Norway, with nine wounds.
  
  The Norse line of Earls had dated from the time of Harald Fairhair. With the death of Jon Haraldsson, it became extinct. In 1236, King Haakon IV chose Magnus (Magnus mac Gille-Críst of Angus), the son of Gille Críst, Mormaer of Angus, as Jon's successor, forming the basis for a new ethnic leadership.
  
  === Cause of death ===
  Murder
  
  === JOHN, Jarl of Orkney and EARL OF CAITHNE ===
  JOHN, Jarl of Orkney and EARL OF CAITHNESS [SCT], brother and heir. He was supposed to have been privy to the murder of Adam, Bishop of Caithness, in 1222, and accordingly he was deprived of his estate by Alexander II, though, for a large sum, suffered to redeem it. He died s.p.m., 1231, being murdered by his servants, and his body burned in retaliation for the death of the Bishop. [Complete Peerage II:475]
  
  John I, Jarl of all Orkney 1214 to 1231. In 1218 Jarl John was present in Bergen at the ordeal of Inga of Varteig, the mother of King Hakon IV Hakonsson (1217 to 1263), whereby the King’s paternity was established. On 11 Sep. 1222 Adam, Bishop of Caithness, was burned alive at his manor of Halkirk by parishioners who resented his exactions. For this King Alexander II severely punished the guilty, and fined the Earl. In July and August 1223 Jarl John was in Bergen, when Hakon Hakonsson was proclaimed King of Norway and the former Regent, Jarl Skule, was given the northern third of the kingdom as a fief. In the summer of 1224 Jarl John was again in Bergen to make his peace with the King, with whom there had been disputes, and had to leave as a hostage his son Harald, who was drowned in 1226, the year in which his father paid his fifth visit to Bergen. In 1231 Olaf the Black, King of Man, came to Orkney on his way to Norway, and on his return Jarl John gave him a ship called the Ox and provided twenty ships to add to the twelve which he and Uspak-Hakon, the newly appointed King of the Isles, had brought from Norway for the expedition to the Southern Hebrides; but be himself does not seem to have left his own islands. Later in the year 1231 Snaekoll Gunnisson, son of Jarl Harold Ungi’s sister Ragnhild, laid claim to certain lands in Orkney and joined Hanef Ungi, son of Hrolf Kitten, the King’s bailiff in Orkney; and in the autumn both parties went to Thurso, where Jarl John was murdered by Snaekoll.
  
  The name of his wife is not recorded. He had issue Harold, hostage in Norway 1224, drowned 1226, and Joan, taken as hostage by the King of Scots either in Aug. 1214 or in 1222; she m. Freskin of Moray, Lord of Duffus, and had issue. [Complete Peerage, X:Appendix A:27-8]
  
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  John, who became sole Earl of Orkney and Caithness, and was Earl, 1222, when Adam, Bishop of Caithness, was assaulted in his episcopal residence at Halkirk, and burned to death 'in his presence, but apparently without his consent.' A dispute about tithes was the cause of this occurrence. Earl John had declined interference. King Alexander II afterwards deprived John of the earldom of Caithness, but eventually allowed him to redeem it. The Earl 'was murdered at Thorsa by Hanef, the quæstor of the King of Norway, and others, who set fire to his house, and dragged him from a cellar in which he had taken refuge, slew him with nine wounds.' This happened in 1231, and by his death it is said that the line of Paul came to and end. Mr Skene suggests that Johanna, Lady of Strthnaver, the wife of Freskin de Moravia, and who was dead in 1269, was the daughter of Earl John. It is certain that after this date the original earldom appears as divided into two parts, the two daughter of Joanna having a fourth part each, making one-half of the whole, while the other half was apparently given in 1233, with the title of Earl, to Magnus son of Gillebride

1. Title: Legacy NFS Source: John Haraldsson Earl of Caithness -
   Author: Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition, Charles Mosley {1999}, Page number: 469
   Note: Source Media Type: Book
   Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2736742367
   
2. Title: Legacy NFS Source: John Haraldsson Earl of Caithness -
   Author: Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom; GE Cokayne, Sutton Publishing Ltd, Page number: II:475, X:A:27-8
   Note: Source Media Type: Book
   Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2736741118