Background
The Crovan dynasty was a line of Norse-Gaelic sea-kings who were seated on the Isle of Man (Mann) from the late 11th century to the last half of the 13th century. Rögnvaldr was the son of Guðrøðr Óláfsson, King of the Isles (d. 1187), who was in turn the son of Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles (d. 1153). On Óláfr's death, Guðrøðr inherited a vast island-kingdom, the Kingdom of the Isles, which encompassed the Hebrides and Mann (known in Old Norse as the Suðreyjar, the "south isles"). In the mid 12th century, Guðrøðr lost control of much of the Inner Hebrides to the emerging Somairle, Lord of Argyll, and was unable to regain these islands on Somairle's death in 1164. Like his predecessors, Guðrøðr is sometimes anachronistically styled "King of Mann" in secondary sources. In fact, Guðrøðr, his sons Rögnvaldr and Óláfr, and his father Óláfr, styled themselves in Latin rex insularum ("King of the Isles"); it was not until the reigns of Guðrøðr's grandsons (Óláfr's sons) that the leading members of the dynasty adopted the Latin title rex mannie et insularum ("King of Mann and the Isles").
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