Alan's son. The Manxmen rose in revolt, and called Olaf to the kinship. Thus, in 1226, the latter obtained his inheritance of Man and the Isles, and reigned in peace two years (ib. p. 90).
That Olaf did, however, possess both the title of king and considerable influence before this date, would seem probable if two extant documents are rightly held to relate to him. The former of these shows him to have been at issue with the monks of Furness in Lancashire with regard to the election of their abbot, Nicholas of Meaux [q. v.], to the bishopric of the isles (Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, viii. 1186). The second, dated 1217, is from Henry III of England to Olaf, king of Man, threatening vengeance should he do further injury to the abbey of Furness (Oliver, Monumenta de Insula Manniæ, ii. 42, Manx Soc.)
In 1228 an attempt was made at negotiation for the settlement of the differences between Olaf and Reginald. Letters of safe-conduct to England were granted by Henry III to Olaf for the purpose (Rymer, Fœdera, i. 303). The attempt, however, seems to have failed, for about 1229, while Olaf was absent in the isles, King Reginald took the opportunity to attack Man in alliance with Alan, lord of Galloway. Olaf, on his return, drove them out, but during the winter of the same year Reginald made another attempt. Olaf, who appears to have exercised great personal influence over his men, met and defeated him at Dingwall in Orkney. Here Reginald was slain on 14 Feb. 1230 (Annals of England, i. 148; cf. Chron. Manniæ, i. 92; Ann. Regii Islandorum, ap. Langebek, Scriptt. Rerum Danicarum, iii. 88).
Soon after this event Olaf set out to the court of his suzerain, the king of Norway; for in spite of Reginald's formal surrender of the Kingdom to the pope and king of England in 1219, Olaf had remained faithful to Hakon V of Norway (Annals of England, i. 147; Flateyan MS. ap. Oliver, Monumenta, i. 43). Before Olaf's arrival in Norway, however, Hakon had appointed a noble of royal race named Ospac to the kingship of the Isles, and in his train Olaf and Godred Don, Reginald's son, were obliged to return. After varied adventures in the western islands of Scotland (ib. i. 43 seq.), Ospac was killed in Bute, and Olaf was chosen as the new leader of the expedition, which was next directed against Man. The Manxmen who had assembled to resist the Norwegians, again, it is said, refused to fight against Olaf, and he and Godred Don divided the kingdom between them. Shortly after Godred was slain in Lewis, and Olaf henceforth ruled alone.
In 1235 Olaf appears to have been in England on a visit to Henry III, who granted him letters of safe-conduct and of security to his dominions during his absence (Rymer, Fœdera, i. 303). It was possibly during this visit that Henry committed to him the guardianship of the coasts both of England and Ireland towards the Isle of Man, for which service he was to receive one hundred marks yearly and certain quantities of corn and wine (ib. p. 341). In accepting this duty Olaf apparently renounced his allegiance to Hakon V of Norway, who at this time threatened the coasts, and who, in consequence of Olaf's defection, had to abandon his expedition. In 1236–7 Olaf appears, nevertheless, to have been in Norway on business to the king, and with the consent, moreover, of Henry III, who guaranteed the safety of his dominions during his absence (ib. pp. 363, 371). Shortly after his return he died on 21 May 1238 (Annals of England, i. 150; cf. Chron. Mannicæ, i. 94).
Olaf had several sons: Harold (d. 1249), who succeeded him; Godfrey (d. 1238); Reginald (d. 1249), king of Man; Magnus (d. 1265, king of Man from 1252; and Harold (d. 1256) (Langebek, Scriptt. Her. Dan. ii. 212).
[In addition to the authorities cited in the text, see Robertson's Early Kings of Scotland, ii. 98 seq.; Beck's Ann. Furnesienses, pp. 169, 187; Torfæus's Orcades, pp. 161–2; Hist. Rer. Norveg. iv. 195–6.]
OLD, JOHN (fl. 1545–1555), translator and religious writer, was educated in all probability at Cambridge, and about 1545 was presented to the vicarage of Cubington, Warwickshire, by the Duchess of Somerset. He was probably the John Old, chaplain to Lord Ferrars, who was accused before the council, on 10 July 1546, of having been a 'man of light disposicion concerning metiers of religion,' but, having confessed his fault and shown signs of repentance, 'was with a good lesson dismissed. In his ' Confession of the most Auncient and True Christen Catholike Olde Belefe,' 1556, he admits that he had been a Roman catholic at one time, and dates his conversion ' some ten or eleven years ago.' He was a commissioner for the dioceses of Peterborough, Oxford, Lincoln, and Lichfield, and also 'Register' in the visitation of 1547, and made allusion to his experiences in the prologue to 'The Epistle to the Ephesians' in one of his translations. It is suggested by Strype that at one time he kept a school, which he must have
