My very first piece of reasearch was into the involvement of John Stanley in the affairs of the Island.
From the history of John Stanley, contained in the “House of Stanley” written by John Seacome in 1737 and contained in the Isle of Man archives, it is insinuated that John Stanley came from humble origins but became King of the Island within his lifetime.
Seacome makes it appear that all this was just a natural progression, facilitated by John’s steadfast service to the crown, but it leaves many questions unanswered.
Knut’s Empire

The Danish Empire then collapsed, England, Eastern Scotland and Eastern Ireland were invaded by the Normans and the ownership of the isles reverted to Norway.
Strategic importance

The English wanted control of the passage between Scotland and Ireland and bases in the Isle of Mann made that control possible.
In the Isle itself, proud of it’s Scandinavian heritage, there was a desire to continue to be ruled by their hereditary kings.
Intermarriage

Kings of Mann


William Montacute

He was acceptable to the islanders who felt themselves once again to be responsible for their own destiny.
Sale of a kingdom?

Scope also had a claim to the kingship but not as strong as the Montacute’s. The claim came through through Scrope’s mother. The claim originated in a cousin of Godfred Craven whose daughter married into welsh nobility.
William le Scope

For convenience this diagram also shows how close the De La Pole family were to the Tudors. The upper part of this diagram shows that Tudor family also had its roots in the Kings of Mann but from an illegitimate child, Ragnald Godresson. Margaret Verch Thomas was a descendant of both Welsh and English royalty. Her marriage to members of both the De La Pole and Tudor families meant that there was a very close but not necessarily harmonious relationship between the two families.
Henry Percy

Because the english policy was to retain Mann as an independent kingdom yet another candidate with a claim to the throne of Mann, this time it was Henry Percy whose claim again originated with Godfred Craven but this time through Craven’s granddaughter, Uchtred of Galloway.

Another person was required to be King of Mann. This time the choice fell on John Stanley.
John Stanley

This explains why the Stanley family deliberately confused the issue of John II’s parentage and why they were supported by the English establishment in doing so. It was essential that John II had an unassailable claim to the kingship of the Isle of Mann.
As it turned out it was unassailable. The Stanleys and their descendants the Murrays ruled Mann as an independent nation for more than three hundred years.