Towards the middle of the eleventh century Dermot MacMalnembo, lord of Hy Kinselagh and king of Leinster, was occupied in establishing the supremacy of his family throughout his native province; and entering the territory of the Dublin Norsemen, [Sidenote: A. D. 1052.] which was known as Fingal, in the year 1052, he ravaged the country up to the walls of their capital, driving out Eachmarcach, the son of Reginald, then the head of the race of Olave Sitricson, and establishing his dominion over the whole district and its inhabitants, whilst Eachmarcach fled from his enemy to Man. [Sidenote: A. D. 1061.] Nine years later, Murchad, the son of Dermot, following up the successes of his father, pursued Eachmarcach to his island retreat, wrested the sovereignty of the Islands from the race of Ivar, and rendered them tributary to the line of Leinster. Thorfin, whose ascendancy appears to have declined before this period, [Sidenote: A. D. 1064.] died soon after the transfer of the Islands to Dermot; and his two sons, escaping from the slaughter at Stamford Bridge, whither they had followed in the train of the king of Norway, returned to their northern home, [Sidenote: A. D. 1066.] and without dividing the possessions of their warlike father, passed a peaceful and inglorious existence as joint Jarls during the remaining thirty years of the century.[193] Amongst the fugitives from Stamford Bridge was a son of Harald the Black of Iceland, Godfrey, surnamed Crovan or “the White Hand,” who found a hospitable reception in Man from another Godfrey who, at the time of his arrival, was king, or Oirrigh, of the island.[194] [Sidenote: A. D. 1072.] Six years after the arrival of the fugitive, Dermot of Leinster fell in battle, after raising the power of his province to the highest pitch, and uniting the supremacy over the whole of southern Ireland, with the dominion of the Isles and of “the Britons”--the inhabitants, apparently, of the Isle of Anglesey;[195] and three years later, upon the death of Godfrey of Dublin, the son of Eachmarcach and head of the race of Hy Ivar, Godfrey Crovan attempted to seize upon the Islands.[196] [Sidenote: A. D. 1075.] Twice was he defeated in his attacks upon Man; but refusing to be foiled, he determined upon risking a final effort, and with a fleet collected from the other islands, sailed up the river Selby by night, landed his forces, and concealed a body of three hundred men amongst the wooded sides of a neighbouring hill called Skeafell. As soon as it was light, the Manxmen, perceiving the enemy whom they had already twice defeated, assembled to give him battle, and attacked with headlong confidence, heedless of the ambuscade, which fell upon them in the heat of the engagement with decisive and fatal effect. They turned and fled precipitately; but finding on arriving at the river that the stream was unfordable, for the tide was then at its height, throwing down their arms they begged for mercy from the conqueror; and as his