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Fergus of Galloway was King, or Lord, of Galloway from an unknown date (probably in the 1110s), 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 (e.g. Dundrennan Abbey), and much else besides. He became a legend after his death, although his actual life is clouded in mystery.
Origins of Fergus
Fergus of Galloway first appears in the historical sources in 1136. His origins and his parentage, however, are something of a mystery. Over the years, Fergus’ origins have been the subject of much discussion and even more fanciful fictional elaboration by historical writers.
One theory is that Fergus was descended from a great pedigree of Gall-Gaidhel kings, who might have been known as Clann Dubgaill, claiming descent from a certain Dubgall. Adding believability to this view is the fact that the chief branch of descendants of Somairle mac Gilla Brigte took the name MacDougall, while the cognate name MacDouall was popular in Galloway. However, since the Argyll name comes only from after Fergus' time, this theory cannot be accepted.
A similar theory traces Fergus from a certain man called "Gilli," a Gall-Gaidhel "Jarl" of the Western Isles. The reasoning in this case is that the Roman de Fergus, an early 13th century French language Arthurian romance, names its eponymous hero's father as Soumilloit (Somairle). The argument is that the latter was descended from the Jarl Gilli, and therefore that both Somairles had Jarl Gilli as a common ancestor. Likewise, yet another theory identifies Fergus' father with the obscure Sumarlidi Hauldr, a character in the Orkneyinga Saga.
Writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries had advanced the idea that Fergus was the childhood companion of David I at the Anglo-Norman court of King Henry I of England. This idea was given credence by his marriage to the daughter of King Henry I, his good relationship with David, and his friendliness towards Anglo-Norman culture.
In reality such a relationship is pure fiction. Fergus was almost certainly a native Galwegian. The Roman de Fergus may not be entitled to general reliability in matters of historical correctness, but Soumilloit is unlikely to have been totally made up. Moreover, Somairle (anglicized either as Somerled or Sorley) is a thoroughly Gall-Gaidhel name, and makes perfect sense in the context. In light of the absence of other evidence, we have to accept that Fergus' father probably bore the name Somairle. Other than that, we simply cannot say anything about Fergus' origins for sure.
Origins of the Galloway Kingdom
Contrary to some popular conceptions, there is no evidence that Galloway was ever part of the Kingdom of Strathclyde. Thus Galloway (west of the Nith at least) lay outside of the traditional area claimed by Kingdom of Alba, Strathclyde's successor state in the area. Galloway, often defined as all of the area to the south and west of the Clyde and west of the River Annan, lay outside of traditional Scottish territory. Though it formed part of the northern mainland of Britain, Galloway was just as much a part of the Irish Sea; part of that "Hiberno-Norse" world of the Gall-Gaidhel lords of the Isle of Man, Dublin and the Hebrides.
For instance, the ex-King of Dublin and Man, Echmarcach mac Ragnaill, had the title Rex Innarenn ("King of Rhinns") attributed to him on his death in 1065. The western section of Galloway had been firmly attached to the Isle of Man, and Norse and Gaelic-Norse settlement names from the 10th and 11th centuries are spread all along the coastal lands of south-western "Scotland" and north-western "England."
In the late 11th century, the Norwegian King Magnus III Berrføtt ("Barelegs") led a campaign of subjugation in the Irish Sea world. In 1097, he sent his vassal, Ingimundr, to take control of the Kingdom(s) of Man and the Isles. However, when this man was killed, Magnus himself launched the first of his two invasions, the campaigns of 1098-1099 and of 1102-1103. In the former campaign, he took control of the Western Isles of Scotland, and deposed King Lagmann of Man. (Incidentally, this campaign also brought him to Wales, where he killed the Earl of Chester and the Earl of Shrewsbury, who were at war with the Prince of Gwynedd). In this campaign, Magnus almost certainly brought Galloway under his suzerainty too. Magnus, moreover, gained the recognition of these conquests from the then-king of Alba, Etgair mac Maíl Coluim.
On his second campaign, Magnus went to Man, and with a huge fleet attacked Dublin and attempted to bring the submission of Muircertach mac Toirrdelbach, the Ui Briain King of Munster. The campaign resulted in an alliance between the two kings, and the arranged marriage of Magnus' son Siguðr to Muircertach's daughter Bláthmin. The alliance mitigated the threat of Domnall mac Lochlainn, King of Ailech, bringing stability to the Irish Sea world, and security to Magnus' new Irish Sea "Empire." However, it all went wrong when Magnus was killed on his way back to Norway on a minor raid in Ulster. Much of Magnus' work lay in ruins.
In the view of the main authority on medieval Galloway, Richard Oram, these events provide the key to understanding the origins of the Fergusian Kingdom of Galloway. It was this power vacuum, he suggests, that facilitated the creation of the Kingdom of Galloway, the kingdom which Fergus came to lead and apparently created. The Roman infers that Fergus' father, Somairle, was a poor warrior who benefitted greatly by marriage to a noblewoman, from whom Fergus inherited power. Perhaps then, Fergus' father was a self-made warrior who married into the House of Man; perhaps Fergus inherited and further consolidated his position, building the kingdom out of the ruins left by the death of Magnus Barelegs.
Marriage & the Building of the Lordship
Fergus is known to have had in his lifetime two wives, the names of both being unknown. By these wives, though, three children are known:
Western Galloway and 1st Marriage
Fergus' likely power base was the area of Galloway between the rivers Dee and Cree. It has been suggested by Oram that he advanced his power in the west through marriage to an unknown heiress. The primary basis of this reasoning is that upon Fergus' death, Gille Brigte got the western part. Gille Brigte was the older son, but because he was not the product of marriage to Fergus' royal wife, he was regarded as the lesser. The fact that he got the west when he should have gotten nothing has led Oram to believe that he got the west because of his mother.England and Second Marriage
Fergus certainly did marry an illegitimate daughter of Henri Beauclerc, King Henry I of England. Her name, however, is unknown. One of the candidates is Sibylla, the widow of King Alaxandair I mac Maíl Choluim of Scotland, but there is little evidence for this. Another candidate could be Elisabeth; but likewise, there is little evidence. Names aside, the marriage seems to have been part of a forward policy of Henry I in the northwest of his dominions and the Irish Sea zone in general, which was engineered in the second decade of the 12th century. It was during this time that Fergus was calling himself rex Galwitensium (""King of Galloway""). However, while his father-in-law lived, Fergus, like his fellow sub-king, David fils de Malcolm (otherwise known as King David I of Scotland), remained a faithful "vassal" to Henry.Marriage of Affraic to Man
As part of Fergus’ pretensions in the Irish Sea world, Fergus made himself the father-in-law of the Manx king by marrying off his daughter Affraic to King Óláfr I Gothfrithsson of Man (1114-1153). Óláfr was in many ways a client of the English and Scottish Kings, and so within this new Anglo-Celtic Irish Sea system, Fergus could establish a dominant position. This position lasted until the death of Óláfr in 1153 at the hands of his brother’s sons, who had been brought up in Dublin, and were waiting in the wings.Elevation of Whithorn
A related development was Fergus' resurrection of the Bishopric of Whithorn, an ancient Galwegian See first established by the expansionary Northumbrians under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of York. The last Bishop of Whithorn, Heathored, had been noted in the year 833. Thereafter nothing is heard; and it is likely the Bishopric disappeared with Northumbrian power, a decline marked by the sack of York by the Danes in 867. In the following two and a half centuries, Galloway, if and where jurisdiction actually existed, it seems to have been under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Man in the west, with Durham and Glasgow in the east.
In terms of the See's resurrection, we know that in late 1128 Pope Honorius II ordered the Bishop-elect of Whithorn to appear before the Archbishop of York. The would-be Bishop was a cleric called Gille Aldan (Gille Aldain), and the Archbishop was Thurstan. York had been coming under increasing pressure from the ambitions of Canterbury, and the northern English metropolitan had only two suffragans (Durham and Man). He needed three in fact to hold proper Archiepiscopal elections. It is likely that York and Fergus did a deal. The involvement of King David I can be discounted on the grounds of his anti-York policies, and his total inclination to appoint English or French clerics, and not Gaelic ones like Gille Aldan. The deal ensured that Galwegian church would not undermine Fergus’ independence of both Man or Scotland, and secured an identity for the new kingdom in the framework of northern Britain and the Isles.
A further point to be noted is that the sources record that the warrior-Bishop Wimund attacked another Bishop, an attack aimed to try and bring the other bishop under his control. Scholars such as Andrew MacDonald and Richard Oram agree that this Bishop was in fact Gille Aldan of Whithorn. It is likely then that the elevation of Whithorn incurred the wrath of the Bishop of the Isles, indicating perhaps something of the status of the Galwegian church before Fergus’ reign.
Fergus & David I
On Henry's death in late 1135, Fergus’ relationship with the Kings of the English could not be maintained. David I of Scotland, ruler of much of Scotland and northern England, assumed a position of dominance. The balance of power swung firmly in David’s favor. It was no longer possible to maintain a position of real independence from the Scottish king. It is at this point Fergus comes into contemporary sources. In summer 1136, David I was in attendance at the consecration of Bishop John’s cathedral in Glasgow. Here was a big gathering of Scottish and Norman nobles. Fergus is recorded as having been in attendance too (with his son Uchtred), leading a list of southwestern Gaelic nobility.
The gathering also assisted David’s ambitions against the new and weak King of the English, Stephen. Galwegian contingents are recorded in several sources as being present during the subsequent campaign and at the defeat of David at the Battle of the Standard in 1138. We cannot know for sure if Fergus was there, but the peace treaty made between David and Stephen in 1139 stipulated that one of Fergus’ sons (certainly Uchtred) be given as a hostage.
Fergus & Máel Coluim IV
In 1153, King David died. The personal relationship of superiority which David had enjoyed over Fergus was not meant to apply to the former’s successors. David was succeeded by the boy-king, Máel Coluim IV. Yet Fergus initially seems to have had a good relationship with the new King. In 1156, Fergus captured and handed over Máel Coluim’s rival Domnall mac Maíl Choluim, the Macheth pretender to the Kingdom of the Scots.
Still, by the end of the decade Fergus and King Máel Coluim were not friends. In 1157, the boy-king’s position in southern Scotland was weakened, when he was forced by King Henry II to hand over Cumbria and Northumbria. It was probably this blow to Máel Coluim’s power that gave Fergus his chance to reassert his independence. The Chronicle of Holyrood reports that Máel Coluim led three campaigns against Fergus in 1160. The context was that Máel Coluim had been in France with his lord Henry II, and had just returned to Scotland. Many of the native Scottish magnates besieged Máel Coluim at Perth upon his return. However, Fergus was not one of them, and any connection between the so-called Revolt of the Earls and Fergus has no evidence to substantiate it. On the other hand, it is highly suggestive that this revolt occurred in exactly same year as the invasion of Galloway.
Fergus and the Meic Fergusa
Fergus’ later years were mired by the squabbling of his two sons. Perhaps too Fergus’ longevity was testing his sons’ patience. Walter Daniel reported that, in relation to the mid-1150s, Fergus was:
“… incensed against his sons, and the sons raging against the father and each other … The King of Scotland could not subdue, nor the bishop pacify their mutual hatreds, rancour and tyranny. Sons were against father, father against sons, brother against brother, daily polluting the unhappy little land with bloodshed.” (Walter Daniel, ‘‘Life of Ailred’’, 45-6; quoted in Oram, pp. 78-9)
Whether because of Gille Brigte and Uchtred, or because of Máel Coluim’s campaigns, Fergus was forced into retirement, becoming a monk at Holyrood Abbey in 1160. He died the following year.
Legend of Fergus
Fergus' descendants, when recounting their genealogy, invariably dated their lines back to Fergus. Fergus was one of the few secular Gaelic figures of the High Middle Ages to attain a legendary status in the wider world of Christendom.
Roman de Fergus
Around the beginning of the 13th century, someone in Scotland composed in French an Arthurian romance dedicated to the Galwegian King. This is the so-called Roman de Fergus. The Roman de Fergus, as it happens, is the earliest piece of non-Celtic vernacular literature to emerge from Scotland. According to tradition, the author was a man called Guillaume le Clerc (William the Clerk). Certain scholars have hypothesized that it was written for the inauguration of Fergus' descendant, Alan mac Lochlainn (or perhaps more appropriately in this context, Alan fils de Roland). More recently, D.D.R. Owen, a St Andrews scholar of medieval French, has proposed that the author was William Malveisin. William was at one point a royal clerk, to King William I before becoming Bishop of Glasgow and St Andrews. The Roman gratifies Fergus' descendants by making him a Perceval-like knight of King Arthur.The Roman circulated all over the Frankish world of northwestern Europe for centuries to come. It is a tribute to Fergus' legendary status as a monarch and as the founding father of Galloway.
References
- Anderson, A.O., Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers: AD 500 to 1286, (London, 1908)
- Guillaume le Clerc, Fergus of Galloway, tr. D.D.R. Owen, (London, 1991)
- McDonald, R.A., Outlaws of Medieval Scotland: Challenges to the Canmore Kings, 1058-1266, (East Linton, 2003)
- Oram, Richard, The Lordship of Galloway, (Edinburgh, 2000)
- Owen, D.D.R., The Reign of William the Lion: Kingship and Culture, 1143-1214, (East Linton, 1997)
| Preceded by: ? | Lords of Galloway | Succeeded by: Uchtred and Gille Brigte |
1161 deaths | Natives of Dumfries and Galloway | Medieval Gaels | Medieval Scotland
"Fergus of Galloway"