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The Shetlands are the most northerly part of the United Kingdom and although part of Scotland they are still very Norse – they only became part of Scotland in 1469 when King Christian i of Denmark and Norway pawned the Islands for 8,000 Rhenish Guilders after his daughter Margaret became engaged to James III. Subsequent kings of Norway had the right to redeem the islands for a fixed sum of 210 kg of gold or 2,310 kg of silver and several unsuccessful attempts were made during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Stuart Hill is the defender in a civil action brought against him by a local accountancy firm. However, he intends to persuade Lerwick Sheriff Court that the court and thus Scottish law has no jurisdiction. He believes the Shetlands should be viewed as a debt security and as such only on long-term loan to Scotland. He has therefore reached the "inescapable conclusion" that at no point in Shetland's history did the Crown acquire ownership of the islands.
The case will be heard on 22 April.
Hmm Nice try but I somehow think his chances of winning this case are somewhere between nil and bugger all!
2 comments:
This is allmost correct.
But, it's a fact it was the King of Denmark, who for 400 years also ruled Norway, that did the "deal".
And it was the Norse (Norwegians) that went to Shetland and settled there - and you know it's still many common words around on both sides of this part of the North Sea.
May we talk about all those intersting facts some day?
It was interesting to see a programme a few years back called Blood of teh Vikings - around half of Shetlanders have norse DNA while teh old language, Norn, didn't die out until the 19th Century
I would be happy to discuss Tor
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