Shetland historian delves into the pawning of the Northern Isles
By Sigurd Towrie
Story dated: September 11, 2007

Failed attempts by the Danish Crown to claim back Orkney and Shetland between 1549 and 1667 will be outlined at a talk in Shetland next week.

A lecture by Brian Smith, head archivist at the Shetland Museum and Archives, will ask when did Shetland become part of Scotland?

The Orkney Earldom was held by the Danish Crown until 1468, at which time the impoverished Christian I, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, gave Orkney to Scotland as part of a marriage agreement with King James III of Scotland.

James was to marry Christian's daughter, Margaret, and by this agreement Orkney was held as a pledge redeemable by the payment of 50,000 Rhenish Florins.

At the end of the first year the payment had not been forthcoming so Shetland was pledged for a further 8,000 Florins. Two years later Christian had still not made the payment so the Earldom of Orkney and Lordship of Shetland were annexed to the Scottish Crown.

Using little-known documents, including a recently discovered letter by James III to King Hans of Denmark from 1486, Brian will investigate exactly what happened in 1469 and subsequent years.

He will also deal in detail with the Danish kings’ attempts to get back Orkney and Shetland from Scotland between 1549 and 1667, the arguments their ambassadors used during the negotiations, and the Scottish crown’s tactics in response.

Brian said: “This is one of the most hotly debated topics in Shetland’s history, and a great deal of nonsense has been written about it. I will be looking at important documents from Scottish, Danish and French sources, many of them little-known in this country. I will be proposing a precise date when Shetland became part of Scotland.”