Ólöf Loftsdóttir

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Ólöf Loftsdóttir (c. 1410 – 1479), was a politically active Icelandic woman. She was the daughter of Loftur ríki Guttormsson and Ingibjörg Pálsdóttir and married to Björn Þorleifsson hirðstjóri. She resided at Skarth in Skarthströnd.

Kidnapping

In 1455, the couple was robbed and abducted by Scottish pirates outside Orkney and imprisoned in Scotland. They were released by a ransom paid by the Danish monarch King Christian I, who gave them the task of expelling all British traders from Iceland on his behalf (the English had begun fishing & trading in Iceland in the early 1400's). The couple issued a feud with the British traders working in Iceland upon their return. In 1467, her spouse was killed in action and her son was captured by British traders. She bought back her son and continued the war by herself as the representative of the Danish monarch, capturing numerous British traders, either enslaving them as a source of labor or expelling them from the island. Her activities caused British traders to flee the island en masse.