Sihtric

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Sihtric ( Sigtryggr) (d.927), Norse King of York. A grandson of Ivarr the Boneless, ‘king of all the Scandinavians of Ireland and Britain’, Sihtric (nicknamed ‘Squinty’) joined forces with another grandson, Ragnall, in 917 to recover Dublin, lost in 902. Moving out from Waterford, they devastated Munster and Leinster and recaptured Dublin. Next, Sihtric won a crushing victory over Niall, king of Ulster. In 920 he left Ireland to succeed Ragnall as king of York. Sihtric refused to acknowledge Edward the Elder as his overlord, but after his death in 924 proposed an alliance with his successor and in 926 married Eadgyth, a sister of Athelstan of Wessex, and is said to have been converted. Roger of Wendover reported that Sihtric repudiated both his wife and his new religion. He may have then been dispossessed, since a year later he was dead and Athelstan reigned in York. The Scandinavians succeeded in recapturing the kingdom and in 941 Sihtric's son Olaf was in possession.

Sandra M. Dunkin