In 1222, Bishop Adam was murdered by a group of Caithness farmers in response to increasing church taxes. It is a rare case (for the medieval era) in which we have a multitude of perspectives on what happened, and as a result, we can compare and contrast the different accounts. There is an Old Norse account in the Icelandic manuscript Flateyjarbók (which Tom has recently written a translation of for the Innes Review article), a report in a letter from the Pope, an entry in the Chronicle of Melrose, an excerpt from Gesta Annalia (contained within the work of John of Fordun) and shorter accounts in a variety of other sources.  Some discussion about Reinald, a Bishop of Ross, will be an entry point to the topic – which will be suitable for our location.

Tom Fairfax completed a Masters in Scottish Historical Studies at the University of St Andrews with Alex Woolf as supervisor last year, and later this year he’ll be starting his PhD at Nottingham University on kinship connections and the earldom of Orkney.