Amlaíb mac Sitriuc

Amlaíb mac Sitriuc ("Amhlaeibh, son of Sitric") or Olaf Sigtryggsson, was the son of Sigtrygg Silkbeard, the Hiberno-Norse King of Dublin, and Sláine, the daughter of Brian Boru. A member of the Uí Ímair dynasty, his ancestors also included Amlaíb Cuarán and Gormflaith, who were influential in medieval Ireland. He was held to ransom by the Gaelic lord of Brega and later killed in England by Anglo-Saxons while on his way on pilgrimage to Rome in 1034.

He may have had a son killed at the Battle of Clontarf (1014), as The Annals of the Four Masters record the deaths of a number of notable Norsemen, including "Dubhghall, son of Amhlaeibh, and Gillaciarain, son of Gluniairn, two tanists of the foreigners;" This Dubhgall is also mentioned elsewhere as the grandson of Sigtrygg Silkbeard.

Amlaíb had four half-brothers: Artalach (d. 999), Oleif (d. 1013), Godfrey (d. 1036), Glúniairn (d. 1031). Glúniairn was killed by the people of South Brega in 1031. Godfrey was killed in Wales, possibly by a first cousin. Amlaíb was outlived by his half-sister Cellach, who died in 1042 in the same month as her father.

Politics In 1027, after the death of Máel Sechlainn II in 1022 and the chaos which accompanied the subsequent bids for the High Kingship by the Irish princes, Sigtrygg Silkbeard was forced to make a new alliance with the men of Brega. Amlaíb joined Donnchad of Brega in a raid on Staholmock, County Meath. The army of Sigtrygg and Donnchad was defeated by the men of Meath under their king, Roen Ua Mael Sechlainn. Sigtrygg rallied to the fight again, and fought a battle at Lickblaw (near Castlepollard, Westmeath) where Donnchad and Roen were slain. The incident illustrates the importance of ransoming noble captives, as a means of political manipulation, increasing one's own revenues and exhausting the resources of one's foes. He was survived by a daughter, Ragnhild, who was the mother of Gruffudd ap Cynan, from whom the Kings of Gwynedd were descended. He also had a son named Sihtric.

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