Although he never became "de facto" earl, Skuli Thorfinsson's relationship with the Scots offers some insight into the politics of the north of Scotland in the late tenth century. In the "Orkneyinga saga" it is claimed that he requested the support of the "king of Scots" for his claim to Caithness. However it is far from certain that the kings of Scots were in a position to offer any authority so far north at this time. The Irish annalists referred to the rulers of Moray by the title "Ri Alban" and it is possible that the saga writer meant the former by this term. Crawford (1987) suggests that "if the late ninth-century conquest of northern Scotland by Thorstein the Red and Sigurd the Mighty had indeed led to permanent colonies in Caithness and along the coastal areas of Sutherland, then the late tenth century struggle may have been a result of aggression from the Scottish side in an attempt to regain control of the northernmost province of the Scottish mainland".