Thorey III of Vinland (The Kalmar Union)

Thorey III, the 13th Queen of Vinland, was accepted as the heir to Freydis II, her cousin, by the Althing in 1250. Freydis's health was failing and it was clear she would have no daughters of her own. Thorey succeeded without any objections in May 1252.

Apart from oblique references in land titles and church registers her nine-year reign is little documented. The chronicle written by monks at Halfdanbae was mostly destroyed in the Great Fire of 1643 and only now exists in partial copies. Álengsk and Abernaki chronicles are more concerned with dealing with the Aniyunwiyans and the Passamaquoddy much more interested in their own civil war.

What is clear is that the main thrust of Vinlandic energies; the slow conquest of the Fraeburt Votnum, continued unimpeded. With the earls kept busy the business of the Althing seems to have dropped away too and for whatever reason the Althing lists stop in 1253, only recommencing in 1260. The conquest had by now settled into a set routine: an earl would raise a warband claim a tract of land (usually by the age old method of how much he could ride around in one day) and then raise a wooden stockade. Settlers from the earl's old lands in the east would be enticed with bribes and to farm the area whilst a garrison protected and also crucially gathered taxes from the new-comers. Tribal villages, of which there were a considerable concentration, were either peacefully incorporated or brutally massacred, generally depending on what kind of reception they provided the Vinlanders. The general trend was becoming clear; in eastern Vinland the Althing reigned supreme. In the rapidly expanding Hafsvaedaland the earls held all the power. Apart from Fjallasay which officially was crown land in either end of Vinland monarch was little more than a figurehead. In essence one side of the country was a republic with an awkwardly tolerated nobility, the other was a full-bore monarchy hurtling toward feudalism.

Church building seemed to have come to a halt and there are only three foundations dating from Thorey's reign. However, as is clear from church documents the actual land under church juristiction increased dramatically. This appears to be a consequence of the land grab in the Hafsvaedaland. In the rush to claim land before other earls grabbed it lords needed money to keep men in the field and build and maintain forts. Hence they turned to the cash-rich church to sell their current land to.

Thorey died in 1261 whereupon the crown passed to her daughter, Kristjana whose record is very much more complete.