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The designation Lord of the Isles, now a Scottish title of nobility, emerged from a series of hybrid Viking/Gaelic rulers of the west coast and islands of Scotland in the Middle Ages, who wielded sea-power with fleets of galleys. Although at times nominal vassals of the King of Norway and/or of the King of Scotland, the island chiefs remained functionally independent for many centuries. Their territory included the Hebrides, (Skye and Ross from 1438), Knoydart, Ardnamurchan, and the Kintyre peninsula. At their height they were the greatest landowners and most powerful Lords in the British Isles following the Kings of England and Scotland.
Background
The west coast and islands of present-day Scotland formed part of the territories of the Northern Picts, and then were invaded by Gaelic tribes from Ireland starting perhaps in the 4th century, who settled with the Picts and whose language eventually predominated in the area. In the 7th and 8th centuries this area, like others, suffered raids and invasions by Vikings from both Norway, and the islands became known to the Gaels as Innse-Gall, the Islands of the Strangers. Around 875 Norwegian jarls, or princes, (literally "earls") came to these islands to avoid losing their independence in the course of King Harald Fairhair's unification of Norway, but Harald pursued them, and conquered the Hebrides as well as Man, the Shetlands and Orkneys. The following year the people of the Isles, both Gaels and Norse, rebelled. Harald sent his cousin Ketil to regain control, but Ketil then declared himself King of the Isles. Scotland and Norway would continue to dispute overlordship of the area, with the Jarls of Orkney at times seeing themselves as independent rulers.
In 973 Marcus, King of the Isles, Kenneth III, King of the Scots, and Malcolm, King of the Cumbri agreed on a mutual defensive alliance, but subsequently the Scandinavians defeated Gilledomman of the Isles and expelled him to Ireland. The Norse nobleman Godred Crovan became ruler of Man and the Isles, but in 1095 he was deposed by the new King of Norway, Magnus Bare Leg. In 1098 Magnus entered into a treaty with King Edgar of Scotland, intended as a demarcation of their respective areas of authority. Magnus was confirmed in control of the Isles and Edgar of the Mainland. Lavery cites a tale from the Orkneyinga saga, according to which King Malcolm III of Scotland offered Earl Magnus of Orkney all the islands off the west coast navigable with the rudder set. Magnus then allegedly had a skiff hauled across the neck of land at Tarbert, Loch Fyne with himself at the helm, thus including the Kintyre peninsula in the Isles' sphere of influence. (The date given falls after the end of Malcolm's reign in 1093).
Founding of the dynasties
Somerled, Gilledomman's grandson, successfully seized the Isles from the King of Man in 1156 and founded a dynasty that in time was to become the Lords of the Isles. He had Celtic blood on his father's side and Norse on his mother's: his contemporaries knew him as Somerled Macgilbred, Somhairle or in Norse Sumarlidi Höld ('Somerled' means "summer wanderer", the name given to the Vikings). He took the title ri Innse Gall (King of the Hebrides) as well as King of Man.
After Somerled's death in 1164 three of his sons divided his kingdom between them:
- Aonghus (ancestor of the McRuari or McRory)
- Dughall (ancestor of Clan MacDougall)
- Ragnald, whose son Donald Mor McRanald would give his name to the Clan Donald which would contest territory with the MacDougalls.
King Haakon IV of Norway (reigned 1217 - 1263) confirmed Donald's son Angus Mor (the Elder) Mac Donald (the first Macdonald) as Lord of Islay, and the two participated jointly in the Battle of Largs (1263). When that ended with an effective victory for Scotland, Angus Mor accepted King Alexander III of Scotland as his (nominal) overlord and retained his own territory.
Lords of the Isles
Angus Òg (Angus the Young), Angus Mòr's (Angus the Great) younger son (or grandson), gave assistance to Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, and in reward kept control of the Isles and gained most of the land confiscated from the McDougalls for backing the defeated side. Angus Og's son Good John of Islay first formally assumed the title Dominus Insularum-Lord of the Isles- in 1336.
In their maritime domain the Lords of the Isles used galleys for both warfare and transport. These ships had developed from the Viking longships and knarrs, clinker-built with a square sail and rows of oars. From the 14th century they changed from using a steering oar to a stern rudder. These ships took part in sea battles and attacked castles or forts built close to the sea. The Lordship specified the feudal dues of its subjects in terms of numbers and sizes of the galleys each area had to provide in service to their Lord.
Battle of Harlaw 1411. John and his successors as Lord of the Isles tried to assert their independence, although ambition and hubris was to be the eventual cause of their downfall. In 1462 John MacDonald II of the Isles entered into a treaty with Edward IV of England, in which he agreed to become a vassal of the English king, in return for the promise of aid in conquering all Scotland north of the Forth-'beynde Scottische see.' It is doubtful, though, if Edward ever took this agreement seriously, and he certainly never took any practical step to fulfil the terms. In 1476 he revealed the details of this treaty to the Scottish crown. John was summoned before parliament, and then forfieted as a traitor when he failed to appear. The sentence was subsequently reversed when John made formal submission to James III. He was allowed to retain the Isles, but he lost control of Kintyre, Knapdale and the earldom of Ross. Moreover, from this point forward the title of Lord of the Isles was to be granted by the crown, rather than assumed in the style of an independent prince. John was to prove to be the least competent of his race; and in 1493 continuing disorder in the Isles led James IV to forfeit the title, sending John into retirement in the Lowlands, where he died in obscurity. The following century, after unsuccessful attempts to revive the Lordship by John's descendants, James V reserved the title to the crown. Since then, the eldest male child of the reigning Scottish (and later, British) monarch has held the title of the "Lord of the Isles".
Currently (as of 2006) Charles, Prince of Wales bears the title of Lord of the Isles.
See also
External links
- Rulers of the Isles
- Clan Donald USA - history
- The Clan Donald Society of Edinburgh
- The Home of the Clan Donald
- Scotland (list of rulers)
References
- The Lion in the North, John Prebble, Penguin Books 1973
- Maritime Scotland, Brian Lavery, B T Batsford Ltd., 2001, ISBN 0-7134-8520-5
Monarchs | History of Scotland | Clan Donald | Scottish royalty
"Lord of the Isles"