The Norse islands become Scottish
In 1468, Orkney was pledged to Scotland by King Christian I of Denmark and Norway as security for the unpaid dowry of his daughter Margaret, who was marrying King James III of Scotland. Shetland followed in 1469 under the same arrangement. When the dowry was never paid, Scotland formally annexed both island groups in 1471, ending over 600 years of Norse rule.
The transfer was nominally temporary — a pledge, not a sale. Christian I and his successors reserved the right to redeem the islands by paying the outstanding dowry. But the money was never paid, and Scotland steadily tightened its grip. In 1471, the Scottish Parliament passed an act formally annexing Orkney and Shetland to the Scottish Crown, declaring that they could never be separated from it.
The Norse legacy in Orkney and Shetland runs deeper than anywhere else in Scotland. The islands had been part of the Norse world since the 9th century, when Viking settlers displaced or absorbed the native Pictish population. The language spoken in the islands — Norn, a descendant of Old Norse — survived until the 18th century in Shetland. Place names, legal traditions, and cultural practices all reflect centuries of Scandinavian influence. St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, built by Norse earls in the 12th century, is one of the finest medieval churches in Scotland.
The annexation of 1471 brought the Northern Isles into the Scottish political orbit, but it did not erase their distinctiveness. Orcadians and Shetlanders still maintain a strong sense of Norse identity. Up Helly Aa, Shetland's annual fire festival, celebrates the Viking heritage with a torchlit procession and the burning of a replica longship. Norway has never formally renounced its claim to the islands — though the question is now entirely academic. The Northern Isles are Scottish, but they remember that they were Norse first.