Saga - 1989, Blaðsíða 96

94
ANNA AGNARSDÓTTIR
cences and requested a British consul be sent to Iceland to protect the British
trade „which in that case will be very considerable". It would therefore have
been most unwise for Phelps to have his prospective customers, the Icelan-
ders, the Danish merchants and authorities as his sworn enemies. Trampe,
for his part, understood that it would have proved complicated and expen-
sive for the Icelanders to pursue legal proceedings in London during war-
time. The following summer (1810) Phelps sent his agent to Iceland and the
Icelanders' claims were eventually amicably settled.
In reply to Trampe's last demand, an Order in Council was issued on 7
February 1810 (drafted by Banks) in which the British government stated its
official policy towards Iceland (and the Faroes and Greenland) during the
war. The Danish dependencies in the North-Atlantic were exempted from
„the attack and hostilities of his Majesty's forces". Danish subjects, when re-
sident in Britain, would be considered as „stranger friends" and free trade
was established between these islands and Britain. Iceland, as opposed to
Denmark, was thus now in a state of neutrality and amity with England.
Though the British government proved unwilling to permit Jörgensen's
extradition, Trampe was promised that the former protector of Iceland
would be kept under strong guard in the prison hulks in Chatham.
Thus the British government went far in meeting Trampe's demands. Be-
fore the governor of Iceland left London in the spring of 1810 the foreign
secretary assured him that the British government disapproved of „the evil
conduct of certain individuals . . . during the anarchy which unfortunately
prevailed" in Iceland in the summer of 1809. However, the Order in Council,
which placed Iceland under the protection of Britain, should be viewed as
„an expiation and complete satisfaction" for the Icelandic Revolution.
Tilvísanir
1 Valdarán þetta er í sagnfræðiritum jafnan kallað byltingin 1809 og verður þeirri
venju fylgt í þessari grein.
2 Jón Þorkelsson, Saga Jörundar hundadagakonungs (Khöfn, 1892), bls. 119-20, 127;
Helgi P. Briem, Sjálfstæði íslands 1809 (Rvk., 1936), bls. 485 og 50. kafli. Doktors-
ritgerð Helga, sem er aðeins styttri en ofangreint rit hans, var gefin út undir
heitinu Byltingin 1809.
3 Sjá hér aftar, bls. 82.
4 Jón Þorkelsson, bls. 120.
5 Helgi P. Briem, bls. 542.
6 Halldór Hermannsson, „Sir Joseph Banks and Iceland", lslandica, XVIII (1928).
7 Sjá nánar Anna Agnarsdóttir, „Ráðagerðir um innlimun Islands í Bretaveldi á
árunum 1785-1815", Saga, XVII, 1979, bls. 27-44. Tilvísanir til heimilda um
valdaránið og aðdraganda þess er að finna þar.