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Group: Osroene (Roman vassal kingdom))
People: John Maitland
Topic: Anglesey Sound, Battle of
Location: Colossae Denizli Turkey

Anglesey Sound, Battle of

Years: 1098 - 1098

The Battle of Anglesey Sound is fought in June or July 1098 on the Menai Strait ("Anglesey Sound"), separating the island of Anglesey from mainland Wales.

The battle is fought between Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, and the Anglo-Norman earls Hugh of Montgomery and Hugh d'Avranches, and takes place as part of Magnus Barefoot's expedition into the Irish Sea, which seeks 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 appears with some ships off the coast.

Fighting soon begins with arrows shot between the Norwegian ships and Norman forces on the shore, but as Hugh of Montgomery is hit with an arrow and killed, the Normans retreat back to England.

The defeat of the Normans allows for the return of the exiled Gruffudd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd, who thereby regains control of his former lands.

"Remember that the people you are following didn’t know the end of their own story. So they were going forward day by day, pushed and jostled by circumstances, doing the best they could, but walking in the dark, essentially."

—Hilary Mantel, AP interview (2009)