Battle of Anglesey Sound
| Battle of Anglesey Sound | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Norman invasion of Wales and Magnus Barefoot's First Irish Sea campaign | |||||||||
 Map of Anglesey |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Kingdom of England | |||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Hugh of Montgomery † Hugh d'Avranches |
Magnus Barefoot | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| unknown | six ships (Orderic Vitalis) | ||||||||
The Battle of Anglesey Sound was fought in June or July 1098 on the Menai Strait ("Anglesey Sound"), separating the island of Anglesey from mainland Wales. The battle was fought between Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, and the Anglo-Norman earls Hugh of Montgomery and Hugh d'Avranches, and took place as part of Magnus Barefoot's expedition into the Irish Sea, which sought to assert Norwegian rule over the Kingdom of the Isles.
Only a few days after the Normans had captured Anglesey from the Welsh, Magnus Barefoot appeared with some ships off the coast. Fighting soon began with arrows shot between the Norwegian ships and Norman forces on the shore, but as Hugh of Montgomery was hit with an arrow and killed, the Normans retreated back to England. The defeat of the Normans allowed for the return of the exiled Gruffudd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd, who thereby regained control of his former lands.
Following their invasion of England in 1066, and the subsequent conquest of large parts of Wales, the Normans proceeded towards North Wales in the late 11th century. While the Normans experienced a setback in 1094, the Norman earls Hugh of Montgomery and Hugh d'Avranches finally managed to conquer North Wales and Anglesey in 1098, forcing Gruffudd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd, to flee to Ireland.
Early in 1098, the Norwegian king Magnus Barefoot went on an expedition with a large fleet into the Irish Sea, seeking to assert Norwegian rule over the Kingdom of the Isles. After he had subdued most of the Isles and set up his base on Mann, he went further south and appeared with six ships (according to the English chronicler Orderic Vitalis), off the coast of Anglesey, only a few days after the Norman capture.
...
Wikipedia