The Isle of Man ( , also ), also known as Manxland or simply Man or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. The government of the United Kingdom is responsible for the Isle of Man's military defence and represents it abroad, but the Isle of Man still has a separate international identity.
Humans have lived on the island since before 6500 BC. There was Gaelic cultural influence and settlement by the 5th century AD, and the Manx language emerged as a branch of the Goidelic languages. Irish missionaries following the teaching of Saint Patrick spread Christianity on Man. In 627, King Edwin of Northumbria conquered the Isle of Man. In the 9th century, Norsemen founded the Kingdom of the Isles, which included Man and the Hebrides. For most of this period, Man was ruled by the Crovan dynasty and the island was a dependency of Norway. Norwegian King Magnus III reigned as King of Mann and the Isles between 1099 and 1103.
In 1266, Magnus VI of Norway sold his suzerainty over Man to Alexander III of Scotland in the Treaty of Perth. After a period of alternating rule by the Kings of Scotland and England, the island came under the feudal lordship of the English Crown in 1399. The lordship revested in the British Crown in 1765, but the island did not become part of the 18th-century Kingdom of Great Britain, nor of its successors, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the present-day United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It has always retained its internal self-government. In 1881, the Isle of Man Parliament, Tynwald, became the first national legislative body in the world to give women the right to vote in a general election, although this excluded married women.
The Manx economy is bolstered by its status as a low tax and offshore banking destination. Insurance and online gambling each generate 17% of the GNI, followed by information and communications technology and banking with 9% each. This status has, however, also brought the problems of money laundering, financial crime, and the financing of terrorism. The Isle of Man is also known for the TT (Tourist Trophy) Motorcycle Races, and the Manx cat, a breed with short or no tails. In 2016, UNESCO awarded the Isle of Man biosphere reserve status.
Name The earliest reference to the Isle of Man occurs in Pliny's Natural History, which mentions an island named Monapia (likely an error for *Manavia) lying between Britain and Ireland. This has been traced to the Brittonic *Manaua, meaning "mountain island" or "high island". The same root may appear in Môn, the Welsh name for Anglesey. The island is known in Welsh as Manaw and in Manx as Mannin, or in full, Ellan Vannin (i.e. "island of Man", with lenition of the first consonant). Mannin was originally a dative form, the nominative being Mana.
Man was associated in legend with Manannán mac Lir, the Gaelic god of the sea, and was sometimes said to have taken its name from him. It is more likely, however, that the reverse is true.
History
In the later part of the Mesolithic Period c.8000 BC, the Isle of Man was cut off from the surrounding islands as sea levels rose following the end of the last ice age. Humans colonised it by travelling by sea some time before 6500 BC. The first occupants were hunter-gatherers and fishermen. Examples of their tools are kept at the Manx Museum.
The Neolithic Period marked the beginning of farming, and the people began to build megalithic monuments, such as Cashtal yn Ard, King Orry's Grave and Mull Hill. There was also the local Ronaldsway culture, unique to the Isle of Man, and the Bann culture.
During the Bronze Age, burial mounds became smaller. The people put bodies into stone-lined graves with ornamental containers. The Bronze Age burial mounds survived as long-lasting markers around the countryside.
The ancient Romans knew of the island and called it . During the four centuries when Rome ruled the province of Britannia, the Roman military controlled the Irish Sea, providing safe passage of agricultural goods from the productive farms of Anglesey to Roman settlements at the English – Scottish frontier. Only a few Roman artefacts have been found on Man, suggesting a lack of strategic value. No Roman lighthouses or signal towers have yet been found on Man.
In the late Roman period, there was strong Irish (Gaelic) influence throughout the Irish Sea. Roman historian Orosius wrote in the 5th century that the Isle of Man was inhabited by the Irish. The first recorded language on the island was Archaic Irish, which is found on stone inscriptions in the Ogham alphabet, dating to around the 5th century. Ogham stones found in the south of Man are monolingual Irish (like Ballaqueeney Ogham Stone), while those in the north are bilingual Irish and Latin (like Knock y Doonee Ogham Stone). The Ballaqueeney stone seems to commemorate one of the Conailli, an Irish tribe. The Manx language is a Goidelic language that developed from Archaic Irish.
According to Manx tradition, Saint Patrick was responsible for converting the island to Christianity. He is said to have sent missionaries Maughold (Macc Cuill) and Germanus to the island in the 5th century. Muirchú's 7th century Life of Patrick says that when they arrived, there was already a Christian community led by Conindrus and Rumilus, which seem to be Romano-British names. There are more than 200 small chapels called keeills (from Irish cill) on the island, which were built in the first few centuries after Christianization.
From the 7th century, there is evidence of Celtic Britons on the Isle of Man, and possible Brittonic control over the island.
The island came under the control of Anglo-Saxon Northumbria during the reign of king Edwin of Northumbria. He then launched raids from Man into Ireland. How much influence the Northumbrians exerted on Man is unknown, but very few place names on Man are of Old English origin.
Vikings began raiding the island in the late 8th century and later settled there. In around 914, Man came under the rule of a series of Norse-Gaelic kings, beginning with Ragnall ua Ímair of the Uí Ímair or Ivar dynasty. It became part of the Kingdom of the Isles, also known as the "Kingdom of Mann and the Isles" (, 'Southern Isles', anglicized 'Sodor').
2nd millennium
There was a mint producing coins on Man between c. 1025 and c. 1065. These Manx coins were minted from an imported Hiberno-Norse penny die from Dublin. From 1079 onwards, Man was held (with some interruptions) by the Crovan dynasty, founded by Godred Crovan. In 1154 the Diocese of Sodor and Man was formed. The kingdom's capital was on St Patrick's Isle, where Peel Castle was built. The Norse-Gaelic rulers established Tynwald and introduced many land divisions that still exist.
During the whole of the Scandinavian period, Man was a dependency of Norway, but the Kings of Norway rarely asserted their control. A notable exception was Magnus Barefoot. In 1266 Magnus VI of Norway ceded Man to Alexander III, King of Scots, in the Treaty of Perth. But Scottish rule over Man did not become firmly established until 1275, when a Manx revolt was defeated in the Battle of Ronaldsway.
In 1290, King Edward I of England sent Walter de Huntercombe to take possession of Man. It remained in English hands until 1313, when Robert the Bruce of Scotland took it after besieging Castle Rushen for five weeks. In 1314, it was retaken for the English by John Bacach of Argyll. In 1317, it was retaken for the Scots by Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray and Lord of the Isle of Man. It was held by the Scots until 1333. For some years thereafter control passed back and forth between the two kingdoms until the English took it for the last time in 1346. The English Crown delegated its rule of the island to a series of lords and magnates. Tynwald passed laws concerning the government of the island in all respects and had control over its finances, but was subject to the approval of the Lord of Mann.
In 1765, the Act of Revestment was passed, whereby the feudal rights of the Dukes of Atholl as Lords of Mann were purchased and revested into the British Crown.
During the Napoleonic Wars, the Isle of Man served as a strategically important, but often neglected naval outpost.
In 1866, the Isle of Man obtained limited home rule, with partly democratic elections to the House of Keys, but the Legislative Council was appointed by the Crown. Since then, democratic government has been gradually extended. (The vote was extended to women on equal terms with men, and most of the Legislative Council is now elected by the House of Keys.)
During both World Wars, the island was used for the internment of people originating from enemy countries. Island of Barbed Wire
In recent times, the economy of the island has benefited from regulatory arbitrage in various contexts, such as low taxes. These have attracted wealthy individuals and, together with relatively low government interference, industries such as offshore financial services and more recently gambling.
The Isle of Man has designated more than 250 historic sites as registered buildings.
Geography
The Isle of Man is an island located in the middle of the northern Irish Sea, almost equidistant from England to the east, Northern Ireland to the west and Scotland (closest) to the north, while Wales to the south is almost the distance of the Republic of Ireland to the southwest. It is long and, at its widest point, wide. It has an area of around . Besides the island of Man itself, the political unit of the Isle of Man includes some nearby small islands: the seasonally inhabited Calf of Man, Chicken Rock (on which stands an unstaffed lighthouse), St Patrick's Isle and St Michael's Isle. The last two of these are connected to the main island by permanent roads/causeways.
Ranges of hills in the north and south are separated by a central valley. The northern plain, by contrast, is relatively flat, consisting mainly of deposits from glacial advances from western Scotland during colder times. There are more recently deposited shingle beaches at the northernmost point, the Point of Ayre. The island has one mountain higher than , Snaefell, with a height of . According to an old saying, from the summit one can see six kingdoms: those of Man, Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales and Heaven. Some versions add a seventh kingdom, that of the sea, or Neptune.
Climate
The Isle of Man has a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb). Average rainfall is higher than that of the British Isles as a whole because the Isle of Man is far enough from Ireland for the prevailing south-westerly winds to accumulate moisture. Average rainfall is highest at Snaefell, where it is around a year. At lower levels it can be around a year. In drier spots, the Isle of Man is sunnier than either Ireland or the majority of England at 1,651 hours per year at the official Ronaldsway station. The highest recorded temperature was in Ronaldsway on 12 July 1983. Due to the moderate surface temperatures of the Irish Sea, the island does not receive bursts of heat that sometimes can hit Northern England. The stable water temperature also means that air frost is rare, averaging just ten occasions per year.
Governance
The United Kingdom is responsible for the island's defence and ultimately for good governance, and for representing the island in international forums, while the island's own parliament and government have competence over all domestic matters.
Political structure