Battle of Anglesey Sound

The Battle of Anglesey Sound was fought in June or July 1098 on the Menai Strait ("Anglesey Sound"), separating the island of Anglesey from mainland Wales. The battle was fought between Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, and the Anglo-Norman earls Hugh of Montgomery and Hugh d'Avranches, and took place as part of Magnus Barefoot's expedition into the Irish Sea, which sought to assert Norwegian rule over the Kingdom of the Isles. Only a few days after the Normans had captured Anglesey from the Welsh, Magnus Barefoot appeared with some ships off the coast. Fighting soon began with arrows shot between the Norwegian ships and Norman forces on the shore, but as Hugh of Montgomery was hit with an arrow and killed, the Normans retreated back to England. The defeat of the Normans allowed for the return of the exiled Gruffudd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd, who thereby regained control of his former lands.