Bjarne gives a receipt for the Scottish annual payment
DN 19/486 · 23 mars 1313 · Kirkevaag p. Orknø
What the letter says
Bjarne of Bjarkøy and Ivar Olavsson, canon in Bergen and Orkney, King Håkon V's proxies, announce in St Magnus Church in Orkney that they have received 100 marks sterling in counted money from the envoys of King Robert of Scotland. This is the annual payment owed by the kings of Scotland to the kings of Norway, for 1312, together with 100 marks for each of the five preceding years. They declare King Robert, his heirs and his kingdom free of these payments for ever. The money was paid by Bishop Ferchard of Caithness, Earl Magnus of Caithness and Master Roger of Inverness.
The letter in modern English
Be it known to all the sons of holy mother Church to whom this letter comes, that we, Bjarne of Bjarkøy and Ivar Olavsson, canon of the churches of Bergen and Orkney, proxies and special envoys of the most serene prince the lord Håkon the Fifth, by the grace of God illustrious King of Norway, having general and free power and special mandate for all that is written below, have received and had in counted money, on the Thursday next before the feast of the Lord's Annunciation in the year of grace 1312 [23 March 1313 by our reckoning], in the church of St Magnus in Orkney. The money was paid by the reverend father Sir Ferchard, by the grace of God Bishop of Caithness, the noble man Sir Magnus, Earl of Caithness, and the discreet man Master Roger of Inverness, chancellor of the church of Moray. They were proxies and envoys of the most serene prince the lord Robert, by the grace of God illustrious King of Scots, specially sent to make the payment. It was one hundred marks of good and lawful sterling, owed to our said lord the king for the year of the Lord 1312, at the term of the Nativity of St John the Baptist [24 June] of that year, by reason of the annual pension of one hundred marks which the kings and the kingdom of Scotland are bound and obliged to pay to our said lord the King of Norway, his kingdom and the kings of Norway, his successors.
Original text
[N]otum sit omnibus sancte matris ecclesie filijs, ad quos presentes litere peruenerint, quod nos Bernerus de Berkereye et Juarus filius Olaui Bergensis et Orcadensis ecclesiarum canonicus procuratores et nuncij speciales serenissimi principis, domini Haquini quinti dei gracia regis Norvagie jllustris ad omnia infra scripta generalem ac liberam potestatem et speciale mandatum habentes, recepimus et habuimus in pecunia numerata.
Background
Bjarne Erlingsson (c. 1248 to 1313) of Bjarkøy was one of the kingdom's foremost diplomats and died in the same year as this letter. The payment went back to the Treaty of Perth in 1266, when Norway sold the Hebrides and the Isle of Man to Scotland for 4000 marks and an annual payment of 100 marks for ever. During the wars in Scotland after 1296 the payments had stopped, and at the settlement in Inverness in October 1312 (DN 19/481) many points of dispute were cleared up. Here the arrears for six years were settled, 600 marks in all. Kirkwall, which DN calls Kirkevaag, was the bishop's seat in Orkney, and St Magnus Church was built in memory of the saintly earl Magnus Erlendsson, who himself descended from the Arnungs through Ingebjørg Finnsdatter. The letter is dated the Thursday before Lady Day in the year 1312 by the Scottish reckoning, in which the year began on 25 March, and DN therefore counts it as 23 March 1313.
People: Bjarne Erlingsson