Harald I Hårfagre, Harald I of Norway, claimed Orkney and Shetland for his kingdom around 875 and due to political differences and problems had to take military action to secure these isles as realms friendly to his rule at home.
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The island was pawned as dowry security in 1468, to the kingdom of Scotland, where members of the Sinclar family held the Earldom of Orkney for almost a century in the Late Middle Ages in fealty to the monarchs of Norway.
However the fief of Viborg castle and its county, was not formally hereditary, though almost all appointees were from certain families, related to the Bonde-Bååt-Haak family that also between 1350s and 1390s held the Swedish titular version of the earldom of Orkney.
King James III gained his hold and rights of the Norwegian Earldom of Orkney for the Scottish Crown in 1470 (see History of Orkney), against a promised compensation (it turned out to be lands of Ravencraig, in 1471); and William Sinclair was thereafter Earl of Caithness alone until he resigned the Earldom in favour of his son William in 1476.