CHAPTER VII.
_Harold Maddadson and the Freskyns._
After the death of Jarl Ragnvald in 1158, Harold Maddadson at the age
of twenty-five "took all the isles under his rule, and became sole
chief over them."[1] Ever since 1139 he had been sole Earl of Cat save
for Erlend Haraldson's grant,[2] though Jarl Ragnvald seems to have
had a share of its lands and managed the Earldom of Caithness for
Harold during his minority, bearing the title of his ward till the
latter attained his majority in 1154. Harold had married Afreka,
daughter of Duncan, Earl of Fife, one of the most loyal supporters
of the Scottish kings, and their children were two sons, Henry, who
afterwards claimed Ross, and of whom we hear no more, and Hakon, Sweyn
Asleifarson's foster-child, and two daughters, Helena and Margret, of
whom we hear nothing save their names. Hakon, from boyhood, went with
Sweyn on all his spring and autumn "vikings" or piratical cruises,
undertaken every year to the Hebrides, Man, and Ireland, in one of
which Sweyn took two English ships near Dublin, and returned to Orkney
laden with broadcloth, wine, and English mead.[3] Sweyn's life is
thus described in c.
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