The Icelandic Commonwealth, Icelandic Free State, or Republic of Iceland (Icelandic: Þjóðveldið) was the state existing in Iceland between the establishment of the Althing in 930 and the pledge of fealty to the Norwegian king with the Old Covenant in 1262. With the possible exception of Papar, Iceland was an uninhabited island until around 870, when immigrants fleeing from the unification of Norway under King Harald Fairhair began the Norse settlement in Iceland.
Read more about Icelandic Commonwealth: Goðorð System, Court System, Warfare, Decline and Fall
Famous quotes containing the word commonwealth:
“Was I not born in this Realm? Were my parents born in any foreign country?... Is not my Kingdom here? Whom have I oppressed? Whom have I enriched to other’s harm? What turmoil have I made to this Commonwealth that I should be suspected to have no regard of the same?”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)