Kingdom of Alba
Encyclopedia
The name Kingdom of Alba pertains to the Kingdom of Scotland
between the deaths of Donald II
(Domnall mac Causantin) in 900, and of Alexander III
in 1286 which then led indirectly to the Scottish Wars of Independence. The name is one of convenience, as throughout this period the elite and populace of the Kingdom were predominantly Pictish-Gaels or later Pictish-Gaels and Scoto-Norman
, and differs markedly from the period of the Stuarts
, in which the elite of the kingdom were for the most part speakers of Middle English
or Lowland Scots
. The article concerns only the political history of the Kingdom of Scotland in the High Middle Ages
, rather than the culture or society of the country.
There is no precise Gaelic equivalent for the English terminology 'Kingdom of Alba' as Gaelic
Rìoghachd na h-Alba means 'Kingdom of Scotland'. Here, English speakers are adapting the use of the Gaelic name for Scotland by applying it to a particular political period.
in the period before the coming of the Normans to Scotland, before the reign of David I. A little more is known about the court of the later twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In the words of Geoffrey Barrow, this court "was emphatically feudal, Frankish, non-Celtic in character". Some of the offices were Gaelic in origin, such as the Hostarius
(later Usher or "Doorward"), the man in charge of the royal bodyguard, and the rannaire, the Gaelic-speaking member of the court whose job was to divide the food.
In the thirteenth century, all the other offices tended to be hereditary, with the exception of the Chancellor. The royal household of course came with numerous other offices. The most important was probably the aforementioned hostarius, but there were others such as the royal hunters, the royal foresters and the cooks (dispensa or spence).
was the first man to have been called rí Alban (i.e. King of Alba), when he died at Dunnottar in 900. This meant king of Caledonia or Scotland. All his predecessors bore the style of either King of the Picts
or King of Fortriu
. Such an apparent innovation in the Gaelic chronicles is occasionally taken to spell the birth of Scotland, but there is nothing special about his reign that might confirm this. Donald had the nickname dásachtach. This simply meant a madman, or in early Irish law, a man not in control of his functions and hence without legal culpability. The reason was possibly the restlessness of his reign, continually spent fighting battles against Vikings. Perhaps he gained his unpopularity by violating the rights of the church, or through high taxes. We do not know. However, his extremely negative nickname makes him an unlikely founder of Scotland.
Donald's successor Constantine II
(Causantín mac Aeda) is more often regarded as a key figure in the formation of Alba. Constantine reigned for nearly half a century, fighting many battles. When he lost at Brunanburh, he was clearly discredited and retired as a Culdee
monk at St. Andrews. Despite this, the Prophecy of Berchán
is full of praise for the king, and in this respect is in line with the views of other sources. Constantine is credited in later tradition as the man who, with bishop Cellach of St Andrews, brought the Catholic church into conformity with that of the larger Gaelic world. No one knows exactly what this means. There had been Gaelic bishops in St Andrews for two centuries, and Gaelic churchmen were amongst the oldest features of Caledonian Christianity. The reform may have been organizational, or some sort of purge of certain unknown and perhaps disliked legacies of Pictish ecclesiastical tradition. However, other than these factors, it is difficult to appreciate fully the importance of Constantine's reign.
(Máel Coluim mac Domnaill) and Malcolm II
(Máel Coluim mac Cinaeda) are marked by good relations with the Wessex
rulers of England, intense internal dynastic disunity and, despite this, relatively successful expansionary policies. Sometime after an English invasion of cumbra land (Old English
for either Strathclyde
or Cumbria
or both) by King Edmund of England in 945, the English king handed the province over to king Malcolm I on condition of a permanent alliance. Sometime in the reign of king Indulf
(Idulb mac Causantín) (954–62), the Scots captured the fortress called oppidum Eden, i.e. almost certainly Edinburgh
. It was the first Scottish foothold in Lothian
. The Scots had probably had some authority in Strathclyde since the later part of the ninth century, but the kingdom kept its own rulers, and it is not clear that the Scots were always strong enough to enforce their authority. In fact, one of Indulf's successors, Cuilén (Cuilén mac Ilduilb), died at the hands of the men of Strathclyde, perhaps while trying to enforce his authority. King Kenneth II
(Cináed mac Maíl Choluim) (971–95) began his reign by invading Britannia (possibly Strathclyde), perhaps as an early assertion of his authority, and perhaps also as a traditional Gaelic crechríge (lit. "royal prey"), the rite by which a king secured the success of his reign with an inauguration raid in the territory of a historical enemy.
The reign of Malcolm I (942/3–954) also marks the first known tensions between the Scottish kingdom and Moray
, the old heartland of the Scoto-Pictish kingdom of Fortriu
. The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba reported that King Malcolm "went into Moray and slew Cellach." The same source tells us that king Malcolm was killed by the Moravians. This is the first definite sign of tension between the Cenél nGabráin and Cenél Loairn, two kin-groups claiming descent from different ancestors of Erc
. During the reign of Macbeth
(Mac Bethad mac Findláich), and his successor Lulach
(Lulach mac Gillai Coemgáin), the Moray based Cenél Loairn ruled all Scotland.
The reign of Malcolm II saw the final incorporation of these territories. The critical year perhaps was 1018, when king Malcolm II defeated the Northumbrians at the Battle of Carham
. In the same year, King Owain Calvus (the Bald) died, leaving his kingdom to his overlord Malcolm. A meeting with King Canute
of Denmark and England, probably about 1031, seems to have further secured these conquests, although the exact nature of Scottish rule over the Lothian and Scottish Borders
area was not fully realized until the conquest and annexation of that province during the Wars of Independence.
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The period between the accession of King Duncan I
(Donnchad mac Crínán) (1034) and the death of Alexander I
(1124) was the last before the coming of the Normans
to Scotland. In some respects, the reign of King Malcolm III
(Máel Coluim mac Donnchada) prefigured the changes which took place in the reigns of the French-speaking kings David I
and William I
, although native reaction to the manner of Duncan II
's (Donnchad mac Máel Coluim) accession perhaps put these changes back somewhat.
King Duncan I's reign was a military failure. He was defeated by the native English at Durham
in 1040, and was subsequently toppled. Duncan had only been related to previous rulers through his mother Bethoc
, daughter of Malcolm II, who had married Crínán, the lay abbot of Dunkeld
(and probably Mormaer of Atholl too). At a location called Bothganowan (or Bothgowan, Bothgofnane, Bothgofuane, meaning "Blacksmith's Hut" in old Gaelic, today Pitgaveny near Elgin
), the Mormaer of Moray
, Macbeth
defeated and killed Duncan, and took the kingship for himself. After Macbeth's successor Lulach, another Moraian, all kings of Scotland were Duncan's descendants. For this reason, Duncan's reign is often remembered positively, while Macbeth is villanised. Eventually, William Shakespeare
gave fame to this medieval equivalent of propaganda
by further immortalising both men in his play Macbeth
. Macbeth's reign however was successful enough that he had the security to go on pilgrimage
to Rome
.
It was Malcolm III, who acquired the nickname (as did his successors) "Canmore" (Cenn Mór, "Great Chief"), and not his father Duncan, who did more to create the successful dynasty which ruled Scotland for the following two centuries. Part of the success was the huge number of children he had. Through two marriages, firstly to the Norwegian Ingebjørg Finnsdottir, and secondly to the English princess Margaret of Wessex
, Malcolm had perhaps a dozen
children. Malcolm and, if we believe later hagiography, his wife, introduced the first Benedictine
monks to Scotland. However, despite having a royal Anglo-Saxon
wife, Malcolm spent more of his reign conducting slave raids against the English, adding to the woes of that people in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England
and the Harrying of the North
, as Marianus Scotus
tells us:
Malcolm died in one of these raids, in 1093. In the aftermath of his death, the Norman rulers of England began their interference in the Scottish kingdom. This interference was prompted by Malcolm's raids and attempts to forge claims for his successors to the English kingship. He had married the sister of the native English claimant to the English throne, Edgar Ætheling
, and had given most of his children by this marriage Anglo-Saxon royal names. Moreover, he had given support to many native English nobles, including Edgar himself, and had been supporting native English insurrections against their French rulers. In 1080, King William the Conqueror
sent his son on an invasion of Scotland. The invasion got as far as Falkirk
, on the boundary between Scotland-proper and Lothian, and Malcolm submitted to the authority of the king, giving his oldest son Duncan as a hostage. This submission perhaps gives the reason why Malcolm did not give his last two sons, Alexander and David, Anglo-Saxon royal names.
Malcolm's natural successor was his brother, Donalbane
(Domnall Bán mac Donnchada), as Malcolm's sons were young. However, the Norman state to the south sent Malcolm's son Duncan to take the kingship. In the ensuing conflict, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
tells us that:
Duncan was killed the same year, 1094, and Donalbane resumed sole kingship. However, the Norman state sent another of Malcolm's sons, Edgar
to take the kingship. Anglo-Norman policy worked, because thereafter all kings of Scotland succeeded, not without opposition of course, under a system very closely corresponding with the primogeniture
that operated in the French-speaking world. The reigns of both Edgar and his brother and successor Alexander are comparatively obscure. The former's most notable act was to send a camel
(or perhaps an elephant
) to his fellow Gael Muirchertach Ua Briain
, High King of Ireland
. When Edgar died, Alexander took the kingship, while his youngest brother David became Prince of "Cumbria" and ruler of Lothian.
The period between the accession of David I and the death of Alexander III
was marked by dependency upon and relatively good relations with, the Kings of the English. It was also a period of historical expansion for the Scottish kingdom, and witnessed the successful imposition of royal authority across most of the modern country. The period was one of a great deal of historical change, and much of the modern historiographical literature is devoted to this change (especially G.W.S. Barrow), part of a more general phenomenon which has been called the "Europeanisation of Europe". More recent works though, while acknowledging that a great deal of change did take place, emphasise that this period was in fact also one of great continuity (e.g. Cynthia Neville, Richard Oram, Dauvit Broun, and others). Indeed, the period is subject to many misconceptions. For instance, English did not spread all over the Lowlands (see language section), and neither did English names; and, moreover even by 1300, most native lordships remained in native Gaelic hands, with only a minority passing to men of French or Anglo-French origin; furthermore, the Normanisation and imposition of royal authority in Scotland was not a peaceful process, but in fact cumulatively more violent than the Norman Conquest of England; additionally, the Scottish kings were not independent monarchs, but vassals to the King of the English, although not "legally" for Scotland north of the Forth.
The important changes which did occur include the extensive establishment of burgh
s (see section), in many respects Scotland's first urban institutions; the feudalisation
, or more accurately, the Francization
of aristocratic martial, social and inheritance customs; the de-Scotticisation of ecclesiastical institutions; the imposition of royal authority over most of modern Scotland; and the drastic drift at the top level from traditional Gaelic culture, so that after David I, the Kingship of the Scots resembled more closely the kingship of the French and English, than it did the lordship of any large-scale Gaelic kingdom in Ireland
.
After David I, and especially in the reign of William I, Scotland's King's became ambivalent about, if not hostile towards, the culture of most of their subjects. As Walter of Coventry
tells us:
The ambivalence of the kings was matched to a certain extent by their subjects. In the aftermath of William's capture at Alnwick
in 1174, the Scots turned on their king's English-speaking and French-speaking subjects. William of Newburgh
related the events:
Walter Bower
, writing a few centuries later albeit, wrote about the same event:
Opposition to the Scottish kings in this period was indeed hard. The first instance is perhaps the revolt of Óengus of Moray
, the Mormaer of Moray
, the crushing of which led to the colonisation of Moray by foreign burgesses, and Franco-Flemish and Anglo-French aristocrats. Rebellions continued throughout the twelfth century and into the 13th. Important resistors to the expansionary Scottish kings were Somairle mac Gillai Brigte
, Fergus of Galloway
, Gille Brigte, Lord of Galloway
and Harald Maddadsson
, along with two kin-groups known today as the MacHeths
and the Meic Uilleim
. The latter claimed descent from king Donnchad II
, through his son William, and rebelled for no less a reason than the Scottish throne itself. The threat was so grave that, after the defeat of the MacWilliams in 1230, the Scottish crown ordered the public execution of the baby girl who happened to be the last MacWilliam. This was how the Lanercost Chronicle
relates the fate of this last MacWilliam:
Many of these resistors collaborated, and drew support not just in the peripheral Gaelic regions of Galloway, Moray, Ross and Argyll, but also from eastern "Scotland-proper", Ireland and Mann
. By the end of the twelfth century, the Scottish kings had acquired the authority and ability to draw in native Gaelic lords outside their previous zone of control in order to do their work, the most famous examples being Lochlann, Lord of Galloway
and Ferchar mac in tSagairt
.
Such accommodation assisted expansion to the Scandinavian-ruled lands of the west. Uilleam
, the native Mormaer of Ross, was a pivotal figure in the expansion of the Scottish kingdom into the Hebrides
, as was Alan MacRuadridh, the key pro-Scottish Hebridean chief, who married his daughter to Uilleam
, the Mormaer of Mar. The Scottish king was able to draw on the support of Alan, Lord of Galloway
, the master of the Irish Sea
region, and was able to make use of the Galwegian ruler's enormous fleet of ships. The Mormaers of Lennox forged links with the Argyll chieftains, bringing a kin-group such as the Campbells
into the Scottish fold. Cumulatively, by the reign of Alexander III, the Scots were in a strong position to annex the remainder of the western seaboard, which they did in 1265, with the Treaty of Perth
. Orkney too was coming into the Scottish fold. In the twelfth century, Mormaer Matad
's son Harald was established on the Orkney Earldom
. Thereafter, the Orkney earl (also Mormaer of Caithness) was just as much a Scottish vassal as a Norwegian one. Descendants of the Gaelic Mormaers of Angus ruled Orkney for much of the thirteenth century. In the early fourteenth century, another Scottish Gaelic noble, Maol Íosa V
of Strathearn became Earl of Orkney, although formal Scottish sovereignty over the Northern Isles
did not come for more than another century.
The conquest of the west, the creation of the Mormaerdom of Carrick in 1186 and the absorption of the Lordship of Galloway
after the Galwegian revolt
of 1135 meant that the number and proportion of Gaelic speakers under the rule of the Scottish king actually increased, and perhaps even doubled, in the so-called Norman period. It was the Gaels and Gaelicised warriors of the new west, and the power they offered, that enabled King Robert I
(himself a Gaelicised Scoto-Norman
of Carrick
) to emerge victorious during the Wars of Independence, which followed soon after the death of Alexander III.
Kingdom of Scotland
The Kingdom of Scotland was a Sovereign state in North-West Europe that existed from 843 until 1707. It occupied the northern third of the island of Great Britain and shared a land border to the south with the Kingdom of England...
between the deaths of Donald II
Donald II of Scotland
Domnall mac Causantín , anglicised as Donald II was King of the Picts or King of Scotland in the late 9th century. He was the son of Constantine I...
(Domnall mac Causantin) in 900, and of Alexander III
Alexander III of Scotland
Alexander III was King of Scots from 1249 to his death.-Life:...
in 1286 which then led indirectly to the Scottish Wars of Independence. The name is one of convenience, as throughout this period the elite and populace of the Kingdom were predominantly Pictish-Gaels or later Pictish-Gaels and Scoto-Norman
Scoto-Norman
The term Scoto-Norman is used to described people, families, institutions and archaeological artifacts that are partly Scottish and partly Norman...
, and differs markedly from the period of the Stuarts
House of Stuart
The House of Stuart is a European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century, and subsequently held the position of the Kings of Great Britain and Ireland...
, in which the elite of the kingdom were for the most part speakers of Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
or Lowland Scots
History of the Scots language
The history of the Scots language refers to how Anglic varieties spoken in parts of Scotland developed into modern Scots.-Origins:Speakers of Northumbrian Old English settled in south eastern Scotland in the 7th century, at which time Celtic Brythonic was spoken in the south of Scotland to a little...
. The article concerns only the political history of the Kingdom of Scotland in the High Middle Ages
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
, rather than the culture or society of the country.
There is no precise Gaelic equivalent for the English terminology 'Kingdom of Alba' as Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
Rìoghachd na h-Alba means 'Kingdom of Scotland'. Here, English speakers are adapting the use of the Gaelic name for Scotland by applying it to a particular political period.
Royal court
Little is known about the structure of the Scottish royal courtRoyal court
Royal court, as distinguished from a court of law, may refer to:* The Royal Court , Timbaland's production company*Court , the household and entourage of a monarch or other ruler, the princely court...
in the period before the coming of the Normans to Scotland, before the reign of David I. A little more is known about the court of the later twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In the words of Geoffrey Barrow, this court "was emphatically feudal, Frankish, non-Celtic in character". Some of the offices were Gaelic in origin, such as the Hostarius
Hostarius (Scotland)
The Hostarius was an office in medieval Scotland whose holders, eventually hereditary, had the theoretical responsibility of being warden of the king's door, i.e...
(later Usher or "Doorward"), the man in charge of the royal bodyguard, and the rannaire, the Gaelic-speaking member of the court whose job was to divide the food.
- SeneschalSeneschalA seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. In the French administrative system of the Middle Ages, the sénéchal was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration in southern provinces, equivalent to the northern French bailli...
or dapifer (i.e. the StewardButlerA butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its...
), had been hereditary since the reign of David I. The Steward had responsibility for the royal household and its management. - The ChancellorChancellorChancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
was in charge of the royal chapel. The latter was the king's place of worship, but as it happened, was associated with the royal scribesScribesScribes is a minimalist and extensible text editor for GNOME that combines simplicity with power. Scribes focuses on ways workflow and productivity can be intelligently automated and radically improved...
, responsible for keeping records. Usually, the chancellor was a clergyman, and usually he held this office before being promoted to a bishopBishopA bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
ric. - The ChamberlainChamberlain (office)A chamberlain is an officer in charge of managing a household. In many countries there are ceremonial posts associated with the household of the sovereign....
had control and responsibility over royal finances - The ConstableConstableA constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions.-Etymology:...
, likewise, hereditary since the reign of David I. The constable was in charge of the crown's military resources. - The ButlerButlerA butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its...
- The MarshalMarshalMarshal , is a word used in several official titles of various branches of society. The word is an ancient loan word from Old French, cf...
or marischal. The marischal differed from the constable in that he was more specialized, responsible for and in charge of the royal cavalry forces.
In the thirteenth century, all the other offices tended to be hereditary, with the exception of the Chancellor. The royal household of course came with numerous other offices. The most important was probably the aforementioned hostarius, but there were others such as the royal hunters, the royal foresters and the cooks (dispensa or spence).
Donald II and Constantine II
King Donald IIDonald II of Scotland
Domnall mac Causantín , anglicised as Donald II was King of the Picts or King of Scotland in the late 9th century. He was the son of Constantine I...
was the first man to have been called rí Alban (i.e. King of Alba), when he died at Dunnottar in 900. This meant king of Caledonia or Scotland. All his predecessors bore the style of either King of the Picts
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
or King of Fortriu
Fortriu
Fortriu or the Kingdom of Fortriu is the name given by historians for an ancient Pictish kingdom, and often used synonymously with Pictland in general...
. Such an apparent innovation in the Gaelic chronicles is occasionally taken to spell the birth of Scotland, but there is nothing special about his reign that might confirm this. Donald had the nickname dásachtach. This simply meant a madman, or in early Irish law, a man not in control of his functions and hence without legal culpability. The reason was possibly the restlessness of his reign, continually spent fighting battles against Vikings. Perhaps he gained his unpopularity by violating the rights of the church, or through high taxes. We do not know. However, his extremely negative nickname makes him an unlikely founder of Scotland.
Donald's successor Constantine II
Constantine II of Scotland
Constantine, son of Áed was an early King of Scotland, known then by the Gaelic name Alba. The Kingdom of Alba, a name which first appears in Constantine's lifetime, was in northern Great Britain...
(Causantín mac Aeda) is more often regarded as a key figure in the formation of Alba. Constantine reigned for nearly half a century, fighting many battles. When he lost at Brunanburh, he was clearly discredited and retired as a Culdee
Culdee
Céli Dé or Culdees were originally members of ascetic Christian monastic and eremitical communities of Ireland, Scotland and England in the Middle Ages. The term is used of St. John the Apostle, of a missioner from abroad recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters at the year 806, and of Óengus...
monk at St. Andrews. Despite this, the Prophecy of Berchán
Prophecy of Berchán
The Prophecy of Berchán, is a relatively large historical poem written in the Middle Irish language. The text is preserved in the Royal Irish Academy, as MS 679 , with a few early modern copies...
is full of praise for the king, and in this respect is in line with the views of other sources. Constantine is credited in later tradition as the man who, with bishop Cellach of St Andrews, brought the Catholic church into conformity with that of the larger Gaelic world. No one knows exactly what this means. There had been Gaelic bishops in St Andrews for two centuries, and Gaelic churchmen were amongst the oldest features of Caledonian Christianity. The reform may have been organizational, or some sort of purge of certain unknown and perhaps disliked legacies of Pictish ecclesiastical tradition. However, other than these factors, it is difficult to appreciate fully the importance of Constantine's reign.
Malcolm I to Malcolm II
The period between the accession of Malcolm IMalcolm I of Scotland
Máel Coluim mac Domnaill was king of Scots , becoming king when his cousin Causantín mac Áeda abdicated to become a monk...
(Máel Coluim mac Domnaill) and Malcolm II
Malcolm II of Scotland
Máel Coluim mac Cináeda , was King of the Scots from 1005 until his death...
(Máel Coluim mac Cinaeda) are marked by good relations with the Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
rulers of England, intense internal dynastic disunity and, despite this, relatively successful expansionary policies. Sometime after an English invasion of cumbra land (Old English
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
for either Strathclyde
Strathclyde
right|thumb|the former Strathclyde regionStrathclyde was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created by the Local Government Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc Act 1994...
or Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
or both) by King Edmund of England in 945, the English king handed the province over to king Malcolm I on condition of a permanent alliance. Sometime in the reign of king Indulf
Indulf of Scotland
Ildulb mac Causantín, anglicised as Indulf, nicknamed An Ionsaighthigh, "the Aggressor" was king of Scots from 954. He was the son of Constantine II ; his mother may have been a daughter of Earl Eadulf I of Bernicia, who was an exile in Scotland.John of Fordun and others supposed that Indulf had...
(Idulb mac Causantín) (954–62), the Scots captured the fortress called oppidum Eden, i.e. almost certainly Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. It was the first Scottish foothold in Lothian
Lothian
Lothian forms a traditional region of Scotland, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills....
. The Scots had probably had some authority in Strathclyde since the later part of the ninth century, but the kingdom kept its own rulers, and it is not clear that the Scots were always strong enough to enforce their authority. In fact, one of Indulf's successors, Cuilén (Cuilén mac Ilduilb), died at the hands of the men of Strathclyde, perhaps while trying to enforce his authority. King Kenneth II
Kenneth II of Scotland
Cináed mac Maíl Coluim was King of Scots...
(Cináed mac Maíl Choluim) (971–95) began his reign by invading Britannia (possibly Strathclyde), perhaps as an early assertion of his authority, and perhaps also as a traditional Gaelic crechríge (lit. "royal prey"), the rite by which a king secured the success of his reign with an inauguration raid in the territory of a historical enemy.
The reign of Malcolm I (942/3–954) also marks the first known tensions between the Scottish kingdom and Moray
Mormaer of Moray
The Mormaerdom or Kingdom of Moray was a lordship in High Medieval Scotland that was destroyed by King David I of Scotland in 1130. It did not have the same territory as the modern local government council area of Moray, which is a much smaller area, around Elgin...
, the old heartland of the Scoto-Pictish kingdom of Fortriu
Fortriu
Fortriu or the Kingdom of Fortriu is the name given by historians for an ancient Pictish kingdom, and often used synonymously with Pictland in general...
. The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba reported that King Malcolm "went into Moray and slew Cellach." The same source tells us that king Malcolm was killed by the Moravians. This is the first definite sign of tension between the Cenél nGabráin and Cenél Loairn, two kin-groups claiming descent from different ancestors of Erc
Erc of Dalriada
Erc was king of Irish Dál Riata until 474. He was the father of Fergus Mór and Loarn mac Eirc, and may have been the great-grandfather of Muirchertach mac Muiredaig. Confusion arises from the latter's matronym, Macc Ercae, said to come from his legendary mother Erca, daughter of Loarn mac Eirc....
. During the reign of Macbeth
Macbeth of Scotland
Mac Bethad mac Findlaích was King of the Scots from 1040 until his death...
(Mac Bethad mac Findláich), and his successor Lulach
Lulach of Scotland
Lulach mac Gille Coemgáin was King of Scots between 15 August 1057 and 17 March 1058.He appears to have been a weak king, as his nicknames suggest...
(Lulach mac Gillai Coemgáin), the Moray based Cenél Loairn ruled all Scotland.
The reign of Malcolm II saw the final incorporation of these territories. The critical year perhaps was 1018, when king Malcolm II defeated the Northumbrians at the Battle of Carham
Battle of Carham
The Battle of Carham was a battle between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Northumbrians at Carham on Tweed in 1018 or possibly 1016. It is also sometimes known as the Battle of Coldstream, from the town of Coldstream...
. In the same year, King Owain Calvus (the Bald) died, leaving his kingdom to his overlord Malcolm. A meeting with King Canute
Canute the Great
Cnut the Great , also known as Canute, was a king of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden. Though after the death of his heirs within a decade of his own and the Norman conquest of England in 1066, his legacy was largely lost to history, historian Norman F...
of Denmark and England, probably about 1031, seems to have further secured these conquests, although the exact nature of Scottish rule over the Lothian and Scottish Borders
Scottish Borders
The Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...
area was not fully realized until the conquest and annexation of that province during the Wars of Independence.
Duncan I to Alexander I
Duncan I of Scotland
Donnchad mac Crínáin was king of Scotland from 1034 to 1040...
(Donnchad mac Crínán) (1034) and the death of Alexander I
Alexander I of Scotland
Alexander I , also called Alaxandair mac Maíl Coluim and nicknamed "The Fierce", was King of the Scots from 1107 to his death.-Life:...
(1124) was the last before the coming of the Normans
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
to Scotland. In some respects, the reign of King Malcolm III
Malcolm III of Scotland
Máel Coluim mac Donnchada , was King of Scots...
(Máel Coluim mac Donnchada) prefigured the changes which took place in the reigns of the French-speaking kings David I
David I of Scotland
David I or Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim was a 12th-century ruler who was Prince of the Cumbrians and later King of the Scots...
and William I
William I of Scotland
William the Lion , sometimes styled William I, also known by the nickname Garbh, "the Rough", reigned as King of the Scots from 1165 to 1214...
, although native reaction to the manner of Duncan II
Duncan II of Scotland
Donnchad mac Maíl Coluim was king of Scots...
's (Donnchad mac Máel Coluim) accession perhaps put these changes back somewhat.
King Duncan I's reign was a military failure. He was defeated by the native English at Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
in 1040, and was subsequently toppled. Duncan had only been related to previous rulers through his mother Bethoc
Bethóc
Bethóc ingen Maíl Coluim meic Cináeda was the eldest daughter of King Máel Coluim mac Cináeda, King of Scots, who had no known sons.The strongest hereditary claim of succession to the Scottish throne therefore passed through Bethóc. Princess Bethóc married Crínán, Abbot of Dunkeld. The first son of...
, daughter of Malcolm II, who had married Crínán, the lay abbot of Dunkeld
Dunkeld
Dunkeld is a small town in Strathtay, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It is about 15 miles north of Perth on the eastern side of the A9 road into the Scottish Highlands and on the opposite side of the Tay from the Victorian village of Birnam. Dunkeld and Birnam share a railway station, on the...
(and probably Mormaer of Atholl too). At a location called Bothganowan (or Bothgowan, Bothgofnane, Bothgofuane, meaning "Blacksmith's Hut" in old Gaelic, today Pitgaveny near Elgin
Elgin, Moray
Elgin is a former cathedral city and Royal Burgh in Moray, Scotland. It is the administrative and commercial centre for Moray. The town originated to the south of the River Lossie on the higher ground above the flood plain. Elgin is first documented in the Cartulary of Moray in 1190...
), the Mormaer of Moray
Mormaer of Moray
The Mormaerdom or Kingdom of Moray was a lordship in High Medieval Scotland that was destroyed by King David I of Scotland in 1130. It did not have the same territory as the modern local government council area of Moray, which is a much smaller area, around Elgin...
, Macbeth
Macbeth of Scotland
Mac Bethad mac Findlaích was King of the Scots from 1040 until his death...
defeated and killed Duncan, and took the kingship for himself. After Macbeth's successor Lulach, another Moraian, all kings of Scotland were Duncan's descendants. For this reason, Duncan's reign is often remembered positively, while Macbeth is villanised. Eventually, William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
gave fame to this medieval equivalent of propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
by further immortalising both men in his play Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
. Macbeth's reign however was successful enough that he had the security to go on pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
.
It was Malcolm III, who acquired the nickname (as did his successors) "Canmore" (Cenn Mór, "Great Chief"), and not his father Duncan, who did more to create the successful dynasty which ruled Scotland for the following two centuries. Part of the success was the huge number of children he had. Through two marriages, firstly to the Norwegian Ingebjørg Finnsdottir, and secondly to the English princess Margaret of Wessex
Saint Margaret of Scotland
Saint Margaret of Scotland , also known as Margaret of Wessex and Queen Margaret of Scotland, was an English princess of the House of Wessex. Born in exile in Hungary, she was the sister of Edgar Ætheling, the short-ruling and uncrowned Anglo-Saxon King of England...
, Malcolm had perhaps a dozen
Dozen
A dozen is a grouping of approximately twelve. The dozen may be one of the earliest primitive groupings, perhaps because there are approximately a dozen cycles of the moon or months in a cycle of the sun or year...
children. Malcolm and, if we believe later hagiography, his wife, introduced the first Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
monks to Scotland. However, despite having a royal Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
wife, Malcolm spent more of his reign conducting slave raids against the English, adding to the woes of that people in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
and the Harrying of the North
Harrying of the North
The Harrying of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror in the winter of 1069–1070 to subjugate Northern England, and is part of the Norman conquest of England...
, as Marianus Scotus
Marianus Scotus
Marianus Scotus , was an Irish monk and chronicler , was an Irishman by birth, and called Máel Brigte, or Devotee of St...
tells us:
the Scots and French devastated the English; and [the English] were dispersed and died of hunger; and were compelled to eat human flesh: and to this end, to kill men, and to salt and dry them.”
Malcolm died in one of these raids, in 1093. In the aftermath of his death, the Norman rulers of England began their interference in the Scottish kingdom. This interference was prompted by Malcolm's raids and attempts to forge claims for his successors to the English kingship. He had married the sister of the native English claimant to the English throne, Edgar Ætheling
Edgar Ætheling
Edgar Ætheling , or Edgar II, was the last male member of the royal house of Cerdic of Wessex...
, and had given most of his children by this marriage Anglo-Saxon royal names. Moreover, he had given support to many native English nobles, including Edgar himself, and had been supporting native English insurrections against their French rulers. In 1080, King William the Conqueror
William I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...
sent his son on an invasion of Scotland. The invasion got as far as Falkirk
Falkirk
Falkirk is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies in the Forth Valley, almost midway between the two most populous cities of Scotland; north-west of Edinburgh and north-east of Glasgow....
, on the boundary between Scotland-proper and Lothian, and Malcolm submitted to the authority of the king, giving his oldest son Duncan as a hostage. This submission perhaps gives the reason why Malcolm did not give his last two sons, Alexander and David, Anglo-Saxon royal names.
Malcolm's natural successor was his brother, Donalbane
Donald III of Scotland
Domnall mac Donnchada , anglicised as Donald III, and nicknamed Domnall Bán, "Donald the Fair" , was King of Scots from 1093–1094 and 1094–1097...
(Domnall Bán mac Donnchada), as Malcolm's sons were young. However, the Norman state to the south sent Malcolm's son Duncan to take the kingship. In the ensuing conflict, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
tells us that:
Donnchad went to Scotland with what aid he could get of the English and French, and deprived his kinsman Domnall of the Kingdom, and was received as King. But afterwards some of the Scots gathered themselves together, and slew almost all of his followers; and he himself escaped with few. Thereafter they were reconciled on the condition that he should never again introduce English or French into the land”
Duncan was killed the same year, 1094, and Donalbane resumed sole kingship. However, the Norman state sent another of Malcolm's sons, Edgar
Edgar of Scotland
Edgar or Étgar mac Maíl Choluim , nicknamed Probus, "the Valiant" , was king of Alba from 1097 to 1107...
to take the kingship. Anglo-Norman policy worked, because thereafter all kings of Scotland succeeded, not without opposition of course, under a system very closely corresponding with the primogeniture
Primogeniture
Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings . Historically, the term implied male primogeniture, to the exclusion of females...
that operated in the French-speaking world. The reigns of both Edgar and his brother and successor Alexander are comparatively obscure. The former's most notable act was to send a camel
Camel
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...
(or perhaps an elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
) to his fellow Gael Muirchertach Ua Briain
Muircheartach Ua Briain
Muircheartach Ua Briain , son of Toirdelbach Ua Briain and great-grandson of Brian Bóruma, was King of Munster and later self declared High King of Ireland.-Background:...
, High King of Ireland
High King of Ireland
The High Kings of Ireland were sometimes historical and sometimes legendary figures who had, or who are claimed to have had, lordship over the whole of Ireland. Medieval and early modern Irish literature portrays an almost unbroken sequence of High Kings, ruling from Tara over a hierarchy of...
. When Edgar died, Alexander took the kingship, while his youngest brother David became Prince of "Cumbria" and ruler of Lothian.
Norman Kings: David I to Alexander III
Alexander III of Scotland
Alexander III was King of Scots from 1249 to his death.-Life:...
was marked by dependency upon and relatively good relations with, the Kings of the English. It was also a period of historical expansion for the Scottish kingdom, and witnessed the successful imposition of royal authority across most of the modern country. The period was one of a great deal of historical change, and much of the modern historiographical literature is devoted to this change (especially G.W.S. Barrow), part of a more general phenomenon which has been called the "Europeanisation of Europe". More recent works though, while acknowledging that a great deal of change did take place, emphasise that this period was in fact also one of great continuity (e.g. Cynthia Neville, Richard Oram, Dauvit Broun, and others). Indeed, the period is subject to many misconceptions. For instance, English did not spread all over the Lowlands (see language section), and neither did English names; and, moreover even by 1300, most native lordships remained in native Gaelic hands, with only a minority passing to men of French or Anglo-French origin; furthermore, the Normanisation and imposition of royal authority in Scotland was not a peaceful process, but in fact cumulatively more violent than the Norman Conquest of England; additionally, the Scottish kings were not independent monarchs, but vassals to the King of the English, although not "legally" for Scotland north of the Forth.
The important changes which did occur include the extensive establishment of burgh
Burgh
A burgh was an autonomous corporate entity in Scotland and Northern England, usually a town. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United...
s (see section), in many respects Scotland's first urban institutions; the feudalisation
Feudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
, or more accurately, the Francization
Francization
Francization or Gallicization is a process of cultural assimilation that gives a French character to a word, an ethnicity or a person.-French Colonial Empire:-Francization in the World:...
of aristocratic martial, social and inheritance customs; the de-Scotticisation of ecclesiastical institutions; the imposition of royal authority over most of modern Scotland; and the drastic drift at the top level from traditional Gaelic culture, so that after David I, the Kingship of the Scots resembled more closely the kingship of the French and English, than it did the lordship of any large-scale Gaelic kingdom in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
.
After David I, and especially in the reign of William I, Scotland's King's became ambivalent about, if not hostile towards, the culture of most of their subjects. As Walter of Coventry
Walter of Coventry
Walter of Coventry , English monk and chronicler, who was apparently connected with a religious house in the province of York, is known to us only through the historical compilation which bears his name, the Memoriale fratris Walteri de Coventria....
tells us:
The modern kings of Scotia count themselves as Frenchmen, in race, manners, language and culture; they keep only Frenchmen in their household and following, and have reduced the Scots [=Gaels north of the Forth] to utter servitude
The ambivalence of the kings was matched to a certain extent by their subjects. In the aftermath of William's capture at Alnwick
Alnwick
Alnwick is a small market town in north Northumberland, England. The town's population was just over 8000 at the time of the 2001 census and Alnwick's district population was 31,029....
in 1174, the Scots turned on their king's English-speaking and French-speaking subjects. William of Newburgh
William of Newburgh
William of Newburgh or Newbury , also known as William Parvus, was a 12th-century English historian and Augustinian canon from Bridlington, Yorkshire.-Biography:...
related the events:
When [King William] was given over into the hands of the enemy, God's vengeance permitted not also that his most evil army should go away unhurt. For when they learned of the King's capture the barbarians at first were stunned, and desisted from spoil; and presently, as if driven by furies, the sword which they had taken up against their enemy and which was now drunken with innocent blood they turned against their own army.
Now there was in the same army a great number of English; for the towns and burghs of the Scottish realm are known to be inhabited by English. On the occasion therefore of this opportunity the Scots declared their hatred against them, innate, though masked through fear of the king; and as many as they fell upon they slew, the rest who could escape fleeing back to the royal castles
Walter Bower
Walter Bower
Walter Bower , Scottish chronicler, was born about 1385 at Haddington, East Lothian.He was abbot of Inchcolm Abbey from 1418, was one of the commissioners for the collection of the ransom of James I, King of Scots, in 1423 and 1424, and in 1433 one of the embassy to Paris on the business of the...
, writing a few centuries later albeit, wrote about the same event:
At that time after the capture of their king, the Scots together with the Galwegians , in the mutual slaughter that took place, killed their English and French compatriots without mercy or pity, making frequent attacks on them. At that time also there took place a most wretched and widespread persecution of the English both in Scotland and Galloway. So intense was it that no consideration was shown to the sex of any, but all were cruelly killed ...
Opposition to the Scottish kings in this period was indeed hard. The first instance is perhaps the revolt of Óengus of Moray
Óengus of Moray
Óengus of Moray was the last King of Moray of the native line, ruling Moray in what is now northeastern Scotland from some unknown date until his death in 1130....
, the Mormaer of Moray
Mormaer of Moray
The Mormaerdom or Kingdom of Moray was a lordship in High Medieval Scotland that was destroyed by King David I of Scotland in 1130. It did not have the same territory as the modern local government council area of Moray, which is a much smaller area, around Elgin...
, the crushing of which led to the colonisation of Moray by foreign burgesses, and Franco-Flemish and Anglo-French aristocrats. Rebellions continued throughout the twelfth century and into the 13th. Important resistors to the expansionary Scottish kings were Somairle mac Gillai Brigte
Somerled
Somerled was a military and political leader of the Scottish Isles in the 12th century who was known in Gaelic as rí Innse Gall . His father was Gillebride...
, Fergus of Galloway
Fergus of Galloway
Fergus of Galloway was King, or Lord, of Galloway from an unknown date , until his death in 1161. He was the founder of that "sub-kingdom," the resurrector of the Bishopric of Whithorn, the patron of new abbeys , and much else besides...
, Gille Brigte, Lord of Galloway
Gille Brigte, Lord of Galloway
Gille Brigte or Gilla Brigte mac Fergusa of Galloway , also known as Gillebrigte, Gille Brighde, Gilbridge, Gilbride, etc., and most famously known in French sources as Gilbert, was Lord of Galloway of Scotland...
and Harald Maddadsson
Harald Maddadsson
Harald Maddadsson was Earl of Orkney and Mormaer of Caithness from 1139 until 1206. He was the son of Matad, Mormaer of Atholl, and Margaret, daughter of Earl Haakon Paulsson of Orkney...
, along with two kin-groups known today as the MacHeths
MacHeths
The MacHeths were a Gaelic kindred who raised several rebellions against the Scotto-Norman kings of Scotland in the 12th and 13th centuries. Their origins have long been debated.-Origins:...
and the Meic Uilleim
Meic Uilleim
The Meic Uilleim were the Gaelic descendants of William fitz Duncan, grandson of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, king of Scots. They were excluded from the succession by the descendants of Máel Coluim's son David I during the 12th century and raised a number of rebellions to vindicate their claims to...
. The latter claimed descent from king Donnchad II
Duncan II of Scotland
Donnchad mac Maíl Coluim was king of Scots...
, through his son William, and rebelled for no less a reason than the Scottish throne itself. The threat was so grave that, after the defeat of the MacWilliams in 1230, the Scottish crown ordered the public execution of the baby girl who happened to be the last MacWilliam. This was how the Lanercost Chronicle
Lanercost Chronicle
The Lanercost Chronicle is a northern English and Scottish history covering the years 1201 to 1346. It covers the Wars of Scottish Independence, but it is also highly tangential and as such provides insights into English life in the thirteenth century as well as Scottish life...
relates the fate of this last MacWilliam:
the same Mac-William's daughter, who had not long left her mother's womb, innocent as she was, was put to death, in the burgh of Forfar, in view of the market place, after a proclamation by the public crier. Her head was struck against the column of the market cross, and her brains dashed out
Many of these resistors collaborated, and drew support not just in the peripheral Gaelic regions of Galloway, Moray, Ross and Argyll, but also from eastern "Scotland-proper", Ireland and Mann
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
. By the end of the twelfth century, the Scottish kings had acquired the authority and ability to draw in native Gaelic lords outside their previous zone of control in order to do their work, the most famous examples being Lochlann, Lord of Galloway
Lochlann, Lord of Galloway
Lochlann , also known by his French name Roland, was the son and successor of Uchtred, Lord of Galloway as the "Lord" or "sub-king" of eastern Galloway....
and Ferchar mac in tSagairt
Fearchar, Earl of Ross
Fearchar of Ross or Ferchar mac in tSagairt , was the first Mormaer or Earl of Ross we know of from the thirteenth century, whose career brought Ross into the fold of the Scottish kings for the first time, and who is remembered as the founder of the Earldom of Ross.-Origins:The traditional...
.
Such accommodation assisted expansion to the Scandinavian-ruled lands of the west. Uilleam
Uilleam I, Earl of Ross
Uilleam I of Ross was the first successor of Ferchar mac an tSagairt, as Mormaer of Ross, with his comital dates traditionally given as 1251–1274....
, the native Mormaer of Ross, was a pivotal figure in the expansion of the Scottish kingdom into the Hebrides
Hebrides
The Hebrides comprise a widespread and diverse archipelago off the west coast of Scotland. There are two main groups: the Inner and Outer Hebrides. These islands have a long history of occupation dating back to the Mesolithic and the culture of the residents has been affected by the successive...
, as was Alan MacRuadridh, the key pro-Scottish Hebridean chief, who married his daughter to Uilleam
Uilleam, Earl of Mar
Uilleam of Mar - Uilleam mac Dhonnchaidh - was perhaps the greatest of the Mar mormaers, ruling Mar from 1244 to 1276....
, the Mormaer of Mar. The Scottish king was able to draw on the support of Alan, Lord of Galloway
Alan, Lord of Galloway
Alan Fitz Roland was the last of the MacFergus dynasty of quasi-independent Lords of Galloway. He was also hereditary Constable of Scotland.-Family:He was the son of Roland, or Lochlann, Lord of Galloway and Helen de Morville...
, the master of the Irish Sea
Irish Sea
The Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man...
region, and was able to make use of the Galwegian ruler's enormous fleet of ships. The Mormaers of Lennox forged links with the Argyll chieftains, bringing a kin-group such as the Campbells
Clan Campbell
Clan Campbell is a Highland Scottish clan. Historically one of the largest, most powerful and most successful of the Highland clans, their lands were in Argyll and the chief of the clan became the Earl and later Duke of Argyll.-Origins:...
into the Scottish fold. Cumulatively, by the reign of Alexander III, the Scots were in a strong position to annex the remainder of the western seaboard, which they did in 1265, with the Treaty of Perth
Treaty of Perth
The Treaty of Perth, 1266, ended military conflict between Norway, under King Magnus VI of Norway, and Scotland, under King Alexander III, over the sovereignty of the Hebrides and the Isle of Man....
. Orkney too was coming into the Scottish fold. In the twelfth century, Mormaer Matad
Matad, Earl of Atholl
Matad of Atholl was Mormaer of Atholl, 1130s-1153/9.It is possible that he was granted the Mormaerdom by a King of Scotland, as suggested by Roberts, rather than merely inheriting it. However, this is unlikely. If he did inherit it, he inherited it from his father, Máel Muire...
's son Harald was established on the Orkney Earldom
Earl of Orkney
The Earl of Orkney was originally a Norse jarl ruling Orkney, Shetland and parts of Caithness and Sutherland. The Earls were periodically subject to the kings of Norway for the Northern Isles, and later also to the kings of Alba for those parts of their territory in mainland Scotland . The Earl's...
. Thereafter, the Orkney earl (also Mormaer of Caithness) was just as much a Scottish vassal as a Norwegian one. Descendants of the Gaelic Mormaers of Angus ruled Orkney for much of the thirteenth century. In the early fourteenth century, another Scottish Gaelic noble, Maol Íosa V
Maol Íosa V, Earl of Strathearn
Maol Íosa V of Strathearn was the last of the native Gaelic family of Strathearn mormaers. He ruled Strathearn as mormaer/earl between 1330 and 1334, and was Earl of Orkney between 1331 and 1350....
of Strathearn became Earl of Orkney, although formal Scottish sovereignty over the Northern Isles
Northern Isles
The Northern Isles is a chain of islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The climate is cool and temperate and much influenced by the surrounding seas. There are two main island groups: Shetland and Orkney...
did not come for more than another century.
The conquest of the west, the creation of the Mormaerdom of Carrick in 1186 and the absorption of the Lordship of Galloway
Lords of Galloway
The Lords, or Kings of Galloway ruled over Galloway, in south west Scotland, for a large part of the High Middle Ages.Many regions of Scotland, including Galloway and Moray, periodically had kings or subkings, similar to those in Ireland during the Middle Ages. The Scottish monarch was seen as...
after the Galwegian revolt
Gille Ruadh
Gille Ruadh was the Galwegian leader who led the revolt against King Alexander II of Scotland. Also called Gilla Ruadh, Gilleroth, Gilrod, Gilroy, etc....
of 1135 meant that the number and proportion of Gaelic speakers under the rule of the Scottish king actually increased, and perhaps even doubled, in the so-called Norman period. It was the Gaels and Gaelicised warriors of the new west, and the power they offered, that enabled King Robert I
Robert I of Scotland
Robert I , popularly known as Robert the Bruce , was King of Scots from March 25, 1306, until his death in 1329.His paternal ancestors were of Scoto-Norman heritage , and...
(himself a Gaelicised Scoto-Norman
Scoto-Norman
The term Scoto-Norman is used to described people, families, institutions and archaeological artifacts that are partly Scottish and partly Norman...
of Carrick
Carrick, Scotland
Carrick is a former comital district of Scotland which today forms part of South Ayrshire.-History:The word Carrick comes from the Gaelic word Carraig, meaning rock or rocky place. Maybole was the historic capital of Carrick. The county was eventually combined into Ayrshire which was divided...
) to emerge victorious during the Wars of Independence, which followed soon after the death of Alexander III.
Primary sources
- Anderson, Alan Orr, Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500–1286, 2 Vols, (Edinburgh, 1922)
- Anderson, Alan Orr, Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers: AD 500–1286, (London, 1908), republished, Marjorie Anderson (ed.) (Stamford, 1991)
- Gerald of Wales, The History and Topography of Ireland, tr. John O’ Meary, (London, 1982)
- Guillaume le Clerc, Fergus of Galloway, tr. D.D.R. Owen, (London, 1991)
- Skene, William F.William Forbes SkeneWilliam Forbes Skene , Scottish historian and antiquary, was the second son of Sir Walter Scott's friend, James Skene , of Rubislaw, near Aberdeen....
(ed.), Chronicles of the Picts and Scots: And Other Memorials of Scottish History, (Edinburgh, 1867)
Secondary sources
- Bannerman, John, "MacDuff of Fife," in A. Grant & K.Stringer (eds.) Medieval Scotland: Crown, Lordship and Community, Essays Presented to G.W.S. Barrow, (Edinburgh, 1993), pp. 20–38
- Bannerman, John, “The Kings Poet”, in The Scottish Historical Review, V. LXVIII, (1989)
- Barron, Evan MacLeod, The Scottish War of Independence: A Critical Study, 2nd Edition, (Inverness, 1934)
- Barrow, G.W.S., The Anglo-Norman Era in Scottish History, (Oxford, 1980)
- Barrow, G.W.S., Feudal Britain, (London, 1956)
- Barrow, G.W.S., The Kingdom of the Scots, (Edinburgh, 2003)
- Barrow, G.W.S., Kingship and Unity: Scotland, 1000–1306, (Edinburgh. 1981)
- Barrow, G.W.S., “The Reign of William the Lion”, in Scotland and Its Neighbours In the Middle Ages, (London, 1992), pp. 67–89
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