In 1079, Godred Crovan took the island by force at the Battle of Sky Hill and established a Norse dynasty that would rule for two centuries. Under Norse rule, the island became the seat of a kingdom stretching from the Hebrides to Dublin — the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles.

Tynwald took its shape during this period. The Keys sat. The Deemsters judged. The institutions that would define Manx governance for the next millennium were being built. When the last Norse King died in 1265 and the Treaty of Perth ceded the island to Scotland, the Keys contracted from thirty-two to twenty-four — but the institution survived.

What followed was a period of contested sovereignty that tested everything. Edward I claimed the island. Robert the Bruce invaded. The island changed hands between Scotland and England repeatedly. And through every change of overlord, Tynwald kept meeting. Iceland’s Althing was suspended. Norway’s thing sites became historical curiosities. The island’s parliament kept sitting because the people who operated it understood that their smallness was their protection.

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