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- Name Suffix: Earl of Caithness
JOHN, Jarl of Orkney and EARL OF CAITHNESS [SCT], brother and heir. Hewas supposed to have been privy to the murder of Adam, Bishop ofCaithness, in 1222, and accordingly he was deprived of his estate byAlexander II, though, for a large sum, suffered to redeem it. He dieds.p.m., 1231, being murdered by his servants, and his body burned inretaliation 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 inBergen at the ordeal of Inga of Varteig, the mother of King Hakon IVHakonsson (1217 to 1263), whereby the King’s paternity was established.On 11 Sep. 1222 Adam, Bishop of Caithness, was burned alive at his manorof Halkirk by parishioners who resented his exactions. For this KingAlexander II severely punished the guilty, and fined the Earl. In Julyand August 1223 Jarl John was in Bergen, when Hakon Hakonsson wasproclaimed King of Norway and the former Regent, Jarl Skule, was giventhe northern third of the kingdom as a fief. In the summer of 1224 JarlJohn was again in Bergen to make his peace with the King, with whom therehad been disputes, and had to leave as a hostage his son Harald, who wasdrowned in 1226, the year in which his father paid his fifth visit toBergen. In 1231 Olaf the Black, King of Man, came to Orkney on his way toNorway, and on his return Jarl John gave him a ship called the Ox andprovided twenty ships to add to the twelve which he and Uspak-Hakon, thenewly appointed King of the Isles, had brought from Norway for theexpedition to the Southern Hebrides; but be himself does not seem to haveleft his own islands. Later in the year 1231 Snaekoll Gunnisson, son ofJarl Harold Ungi’s sister Ragnhild, laid claim to certain lands in Orkneyand 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 wasmurdered by Snaekoll.
The name of his wife is not recorded. He had issue Harold, hostage inNorway 1224, drowned 1226, and Joan, taken as hostage by the King ofScots either in Aug. 1214 or in 1222; she m. Freskin of Moray, Lord ofDuffus, 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 residenceat Halkirk, and burned to death 'in his presence, but apparently withouthis consent.' A dispute about tithes was the cause of this occurrence.Earl John had declined interference. King Alexander II afterwardsdeprived John of the earldom of Caithness, but eventually allowed him toredeem it. The Earl 'was murdered at Thorsa by Hanef, the quæstor of theKing of Norway, and others, who set fire to his house, and dragged himfrom 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 Paulcame to and end. Mr Skene suggests that Johanna, Lady of Strthnaver, thewife of Freskin de Moravia, and who was dead in 1269, was the daughter ofEarl John. It is certain that after this date the original earldomappears as divided into two parts, the two daughter of Joanna having afourth part each, making one-half of the whole, while the other half wasapparently given in 1233, with the title of Earl, to Magnus son ofGillebride
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Abt 1162 - Aft 1231 (69 years)