Menai Strait - History

History

In 58 the Roman XXth Legion crossed the Menai Strait to conquer Anglesey, commanded by the governor Suetonius Paulinus, who had been appointed by Emperor Nero to subdue Wales and its Druids. Agricola was a military tribune with that army, and his experiences are chronicled by Tacitus in his biography, De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae. The Ordovices gathered on the shores of Anglesey. The Roman infantry crossed on boats and their cavalry swam across; they overcame all resistance, and the Ordovices scattered. The Romans cut down the sacred groves in which human sacrifices had been made. Further military progress was halted and the Romans left when Suetonius was informed of the rising of Boudicca in south-east Britannia.

According to Heimskringla, the 11th Century Norse-Gael ruler Echmarcach mac Ragnaill plundered in Wales with his friend, the viking Guttorm Gunnhildsson. However they started quarreling over the plunder and fought a battle at Menai Strait. Guttorm won the battle by praying to Saint Olaf and Echmarcach was killed.

In the 12th Century, a later Viking raid and battle in the Menai Strait are recounted in the Orkneyinga Saga as playing an important role in the life of Magnus Erlendsson, Earl of Orkney - the future Saint Magnus. He had a reputation for piety and gentleness, and refusing to fight in the raid on Anglesey stayed on board his ship, singing psalms. This incident is recounted at length in the 1973 novel Magnus by Orcadian author George Mackay Brown, and in the 1977 opera, The Martyrdom of St Magnus by Peter Maxwell Davies. The first of the opera's nine parts is called "The Battle of Menai Strait".

From the 1890s until 1963, the pleasure steamers of the Liverpool and North Wales Steamship Company would ply their main route from Liverpool and Llandudno along the Menai Strait, and around Anglesey. After the companies voluntary liquidation in 1962, P and A Campbell took over the services for a while. Now, every year for two weeks in the summer, the MV Balmoral undertakes a similar service.