Aufrica de Connoght

Coat of arms of the King of Mann, as depicted by the late thirteenth-century Armorial Wijnbergen.^{[note 1]}

Aufrica de Connoght,^[2] also known as Affrica de Counnought,^[3] and Aufrica de Cunnoght,^[4] was a fourteenth-century woman who claimed to be an heiress of Magnús Óláfsson, King of Mann and the Isles, and who had some sort of connection with Simon de Montagu (died 1316).

Manx claims

In 1264, with the collapse of Norwegian sovereignty along the western seaboard of Scotland, Alexander III, King of Scotland (died 1286) forced the submission of Magnús Óláfsson, King of Mann and the Isles (died 1265).^[5] The following year, Magnús died without a legitimate heir, and his island realm was annexed Alexander.^[6] After the latter's death in 1286, Edward I, King of England (died 1307) claimed overlordship of Scotland, and subsequently recognised John Balliol as King of Scotland in 1292.^[7]

In 1293, almost certainly as a result of the significant English influence upon John's fledgling regime,^[8] Aufrica appealed to John and Edward, concerning rights she claimed to Mann as an alleged heiress of Magnús.^[9] Later in 1304, Aufrica quitclaimed these claimed rights to Simon de Montagu (died 1316).^[10] Although it is possible that she and Simon were married at about this point,^[11] there is no specific evidence of such a union.^[12] Whatever the case, Simon later sought to seize control of the island, and in so doing incurred the wrath of Edward II, King of England (died 1327),^[13] who pardoned Simon for his actions against the island in 1313.^[14] Later in the century, Simon's grandson, William de Montagu, Earl of Salisbury (died 1344), inherited Simon's rights to Mann.^[15] Aufrica was not the only contemporary claimant to Mann. In 1305, the claims of a Maria, daughter of Rǫgnvaldr Óláfsson, King of Mann and the Isles (died 1249), were pursued by her grandson, John Waldeboef.^[16]

Notes

1. The coat of arms seems to have been first associated with Mann after the Scots took possession of the island in the last half of the thirteenth century. The adoption of a new heraldic device—the triskeles—may have been used as a means of reinforcing the new regime on the island.^[1]

Citations

1. Wilson (2000).
2. Prestwich (2004); Wagner (1960); Cokayne; Doubleday; Howard de Walden (1936).
3. Duffy (1991).
4. Dryburgh; Smith (2006).
5. Reid (2011); McDonald (2007) pp. 53, 222.
6. Reid (2011); McDonald (2007) p. 222.
7. Prestwich (2008); Stell (2005).
8. Barrow (1988) p. 58.
9. Brown (2004) p. 259; Sellar (1998) p. 243; Barrow (1988) p. 58; Wagner (1960) p. 72; Oliver (1861) pp. 127–130; Rotuli Scotiæ in Turri Londinensi (1814) p. 18.
10. Dryburgh; Smith (2006) pp. 56–57; Prestwich (2004); Duffy (1991) p. 305; Wagner (1960) p. 72; Cokayne; Doubleday; Howard de Walden (1936) p. 79, 79 n. e; Oliver (1861) pp. 137–138; Sacheverell; Brown; Cumming (1859) pp. 58–59.
11. Prestwich (2004).
12. Wagner (1960) p. 72 n. 1; Cokayne; Doubleday; Howard de Walden (1936) p. 80 n. d.
13. Prestwich (2004); Duffy (1991) p. 305.
14. Prestwich (2004); Cokayne; Doubleday; Howard de Walden (1936) p. 79 n. e.
15. Ormrod (2004).
16. Sellar (1998) p. 243; Wagner (1960) p. 72; Oliver (1861) pp. 135–136.

References

Primary sources

• Dryburgh, P; Smith, B (2006). Calendar of Documents Relating to Medieval Ireland in the Series of Ancient Deeds in the National Archives of the United Kingdom. Analecta Hibernica. Vol. 39. pp. 3–61. JSTOR 20519915 – via JSTOR. (subscription required (help)).
• Oliver, JR, ed. (1861). Monumenta de Insula Manniæ; or, A Collection of National Documents Relating to the Isle of Man. Vol. 2. Douglas, IM: Manx Society – via Internet Archive.
• Rotuli Scotiæ in Turri Londinensi. Vol. 1. n.p.: His Majesty King George III. 1814 – via Google Books.
• Sacheverell, W; Brown, T (1859). Cumming, JG, ed. An Account of the Isle of Man, its Inhabitants, Language, Soil, Remarkable Curiosities, the Succession of its Kings and Bishops, Down to the Eighteenth Century: By Way of Essay. Douglas, IM: Manx Society – via Google Books.

Secondary sources

• Barrow, GWS (1988) [1965]. Robert Bruce & the Community of the Realm of Scotland (3rd ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0 85224 539 4.
• Brown, M (2004). The Wars of Scotland, 1214–1371. The New Edinburgh History of Scotland (series vol. 4). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-1238-6 – via Google Books.
• Cokayne, GE; Doubleday, HA; Howard de Walden, eds. (1936). The Complete Peerage. Vol. 9. London: The St Catherine Press.
• Duffy, S (1991). The 'Continuation' of Nicholas Trevet: A New Source for the Bruce Invasion. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 91C. pp. 303–315. eISSN 2009-0048. ISSN 0035-8991. JSTOR 25516086 – via JSTOR. (subscription required (help)).
• McDonald, RA (2007). Manx Kingship in its Irish Sea Setting, 1187–1229: King Rǫgnvaldr and the Crovan Dynasty. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 978-1-84682-047-2.
• Ormrod, WM (2004). "Montagu, William, First earl of Salisbury (1301–1344)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19001. Retrieved 10 September 2011. (subscription required (help)).
• Prestwich, M (2004). "Montagu, Simon de, First Lord Montagu (1259?–1316)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/18997. Retrieved 8 September 2011. (subscription required (help)).
• Prestwich, M (2008). "Edward I (1239–1307)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (January 2008 ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8517. Retrieved 15 September 2011. (subscription required (help)).
• Reid, NH (2011). "Alexander III (1241–1286)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (May 2011 ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/323. Retrieved 5 July 2011. (subscription required (help)).
• Sellar, WDH (1998). "The Ancestry of the MacLeods Reconsidered". Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness (Gaelic Society of Inverness) 60: 233–258 – via Google Books.
• Stell, GP (2005). "John [John de Balliol] (c.1248x50–1314)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (October 2005 ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1209. Retrieved 6 September 2011. (subscription required (help)).
• Wagner, AR (1960). English Genealogy. Oxford: Clarendon Press – via Questia. (subscription required (help)).
• Wilson, RJA (2000). "On the Trail of the Triskeles: From the McDonald Institute to Archaic Greek Sicily". Cambridge Archaeological Journal 10 (1): 35–61. doi:10.1017/S0959774300000020.