Has Norway invaded England since 1066

by pestomania

After Harald Hardråde's defeat at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066, his son Olav Kyrre was allowed to return to Norway after pledging never to invade England again. My question is: Has Norway been able to keep this promise? I know that Denmark-Norway fought multiple wars with Great Britain, but has Norwegian forces invaded English or British territory since 1066? Did Norwegians partake in German attacks on GB during WW2? Or has there been some invasion related to territorial claims in The Arctics?

y_sengaku

In short answer to OP's question: certainly invaded the British Isles after 1066, though the exactly definition of England/ British territory can be problematic.

  • In 1098, the fleet of King Magnus barefoot of Norway (son of Olav Kyrre) came to Anglesey and defeated the army of Norman marsh earls on Menai Strait (between Wales and Anglesey). Magnus invaded Ireland again in 1103, but was killed there. The main purpose of his expeditions is said to have been to secure the political hegemony of the Norwegian ruler over local magnates in the fringe area of the British Isles as well as the Irish Sea.
  • Later saga traditions (Orkneyinga Saga, Chap. 91; Morkinskinna, Chap. 97) claim that Øystein Haraldsson (d. 1157), one of the joint-kings of Norway at that time, took a raid in Scotland as well as England (including Whiteby) widely in the early 1150s (ca. 1151). The saga authors narrates that King Øystein himself justified his action as a revenge of late King Harald Hardråde's failed invasion, though they also add that there were already differed opinions on this expedition. The anonymous author of Morkinskinna also cites the skaldic poems as the contemporary evidence to validate the narrative, so it is OK to accept the historicity of the expedition itself as well as at least some of the accompanying raids. This is probably the last expedition targeted to England as well.
  • In October of 1263, the Norwegian fleet led by King Håkon Håkonsson (d. 1263) came to Scotland to secure the political hegemony over the Western Isles again, and fought with the army of King Alexander III of Scotland at Largs (The battle of Largs). Neither could vanquish another, but anyway King Håkon decided to retreat, and got ill and died on his way to homeland in the Orkney later in this year. It was the last large-scale invasion of the Norwegian fleet around the British Isles.

In sum, as for both cases of King Magnus Barefoot and Håkon Håkonsson (especially the latter), the main focuses of the expeditions after Norman Conquest were not the territorial conquest itself, but rather the assertion of political overlordship over the local rulers of the insular-maritime fringe zone of the British Isles.

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