15: Hakon the Old at Largs
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In the Norse annals our famous Battle of Largs makes small figure, or
almost none at all among Hakon's battles and feats. They do say
indeed, these Norse annalists, that the King of Scotland, Alexander
III. (who had such a fate among the crags about Kinghorn in time
coming), was very anxious to purchase from King Hakon his sovereignty
of the Western Isles, but that Hakon pointedly refused; and at length,
being again importuned and bothered on the business, decided on giving
a refusal that could not be mistaken. Decided, namely, to go with a
big expedition, and look thoroughly into that wing of his Dominions;
where no doubt much has fallen awry since Magnus Barefoot's grand
visit thither, and seems to be inviting the cupidity of bad neighbors!
"All this we will put right again," thinks Hakon, "and gird it up into
a safe and defensive posture." Hakon sailed accordingly, with a
strong fleet; adjusting and rectifying among his Hebrides as he went
long, and landing withal on the Scotch coast to plunder and punish as
he thought fit. The Scots say he had claimed of them Arran, Bute, and
the Two Cumbraes ("given my ancestors by Donald Bain," said Hakon, to
the amazement of the Scots) "as part of the Sudoer" (Southern Isles):
—so far from selling that fine kingdom!—and that it was after taking
both Arran and Bute that he made his descent at Largs.
Of Largs there is no mention whatever in Norse books. But beyond any
doubt, such is the other evidence, Hakon did land there; land and
fight, not conquering, probably rather beaten; and very certainly
"retiring to his ships," as in either case he behooved to do! It is
further certain he was dreadfully maltreated by the weather on those
wild coasts; and altogether credible, as the Scotch records bear, that
he was so at Largs very specially. The Norse Records or Sagas say
merely, he lost many of his ships by the tempests, and many of his men
by land fighting in various parts,—tacitly including Largs, no doubt,
which was the last of these misfortunes to him. "In the battle here
he lost 15,000 men, say the Scots, we 5,000"! Divide these numbers by
ten, and the excellently brief and lucid Scottish summary by Buchanan
may be taken as the approximately true and exact.(19) Date of the
battle is A.D. 1263.
To this day, on a little plain to the south of the village, now town,
of Largs, in Ayrshire, there are seen stone cairns and monumental
heaps, and, until within a century ago, one huge, solitary, upright
stone; still mutely testifying to a battle there,—altogether clearly,
to this battle of King Hakon's; who by the Norse records, too, was in
these neighborhoods at that same date, and evidently in an aggressive,
high kind of humor. For "while his ships and army were doubling the
Mull of Cantire, he had his own boat set on wheels, and therein,
splendidly enough, had himself drawn across the Promontory at a
flatter part," no doubt with horns sounding, banners waving. "All to
the left of me is mine and Norway's," exclaimed Hakon in his
triumphant boat progress, which such disasters soon followed.
Hakon gathered his wrecks together, and sorrowfully made for Orkney.
It is possible enough, as our Guide Books now say, he may have gone by
Iona, Mull, and the narrow seas inside of Skye; and that the
Kyle-Akin, favorably known to sea-bathers in that region, may
actually mean the Kyle (narrow strait) of Hakon, where Hakon may have
dropped anchor, and rested for a little while in smooth water and
beautiful environment, safe from equinoctial storms. But poor Hakon's
heart was now broken. He went to Orkney; died there in the winter;
never beholding Norway more.
He it was who got Iceland, which had been a Republic for four
centuries, united to his kingdom of Norway: a long and intricate
operation,—much presided over by our Snorro Sturleson, so often
quoted here, who indeed lost his life (by assassination from his
sons-in-law) and out of great wealth sank at once into poverty of
zero,—one midnight in his own cellar, in the course of that bad
business. Hakon was a great Politician in his time; and succeeded in
many things before he lost Largs. Snorro's death by murder had
happened about twenty years before Hakon's by broken heart. He is
called Hakon the Old, though one finds his age was but fifty-nine,
probably a longish life for a Norway King. Snorro's narrative ceases
when Snorro himself was born; that is to say, at the threshold of King
Sverrir; of whose exploits and doubtful birth it is guessed by some
that Snorro willingly forbore to speak in the hearing of such a Hakon.
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(19) Buchanani Hist. i. 130.
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