| Notes |
- From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (citation details below):
His own name, later Gaelicized as Somhairle, is Scandinavian--appropriately meaning 'summer warrior'--and his father's and grandfather's names are Gaelic, indicative of the hybrid Gaelic–Norse culture of the west highlands and islands at that time. [...] It is difficult, in fact, to detach the historical Somerled from the Somerled (Somhairle Mor mac Gille-Brigde) of later Gaelic tradition, in which he is associated with his most famous descendants, the MacDonald lords of the Isles; it was there claimed that his forebears had been lords in Argyll, but had been dispossessed in the time of his grandfather. Tradition also portrayed Somerled as a great champion of the Gael against Scandinavian dominion. This last is certainly misleading. Whatever his paternal ancestry, it is clear that the milieu in which he operated was as much Scandinavian as Gaelic, and that his lordship should be compared with that of rulers of Orkney, Dublin, and the Isle of Man, all of undoubted Scandinavian ancestry, as much as with Gaelic kings and rulers.
The first contemporary mention of Somerled, described as regulus of Argyll, occurs in 1153, when he rebelled against the new king of Scots, Malcolm IV (r. 1153–65). However, as Somerled rose with his nephews, the sons of Malcolm Macheth, the dispossessed claimant to Moray, who had been imprisoned since 1134, it is clear that he must already have been a man of mature years. It has been conjectured that Somerled may have been present at the battle of the Standard in 1138, when the men of Argyll are known to have supported David I, and this is not unlikely. During King David's reign (1124–53) Somerled, like Fergus, prince of Galloway, seems to have acknowledged the king's strong lordship.
Somerled remained opposed to King Malcolm for several years, but reached a settlement with him in 1160, when a royal charter to Kelso Abbey is dated 'in Natali Domino post proximo concordiam Regis et Sumerledi' (Regesta regum Scottorum, 1, no. 175). It must have been on the occasion of this reconciliation that Somerled received the sobriquet 'sit-by-the-king'. Three years earlier, in 1157, Malcolm MacHeth had been released from prison and made earl of Ross in compensation for Moray.
In the meantime Somerled had extended his rule into the kingdom of Man and the Hebrides, at that time subject to a rather shadowy Norwegian overlordship. He married Ragnhild, daughter of Olaf (d. 1153), son of Godred (or Godfrey) Crovan, and they had three sons, Dugald, Ranald, and Angus, and perhaps a fourth, Olaf. For forty years until his death in 1153 Ragnhild's father ruled the kingdom of the Isles, which encompassed the Isle of Man and the Hebrides, extending from the Calf of Man to the Butt of Lewis. Olaf adopted the Latin style rex insularum in his charters, a translation of the Gaelic title ri? Innse Gall (literally 'king of the foreigners' isles'), which had been in use since the late tenth century. Olaf's son Godred proved an unpopular ruler. A leading chieftain, Thorfinn, son of Ottar, came to Somerled offering to make his son Dugald king in Godred's place. A naval battle ensued between Godred and Somerled in January 1156, as a result of which Godred agreed to part with half of his kingdom. Judging from the territories later under the control of his descendants, Somerled's share included the Mull and Islay groups of islands at least, and perhaps also the Uists and Barra. In 1158 he expelled Godred from the Isles altogether. Godred did not return until after Somerled's death, and then only to a divided kingdom.
Like his father-in-law, Olaf of Man, and Fergus of Galloway, Somerled was a patron of the church. In 1164 he tried to persuade Flaithbertach Ó Brolchain, the successor of St Columba in Ireland, to come to Iona as abbot, but was unsuccessful. He may also have founded the Cistercian monastery of Saddell in Kintyre, although the credit for this more probably belongs to his son Ranald. Somerled's daughter Bethoc became the first prioress of the Benedictine nunnery of Iona.
In 1164 Somerled rose again in opposition to Malcolm IV. He launched a major expedition with men drawn from the Hebrides, Argyll, Kintyre, and Dublin, and sailed up the Clyde with many galleys before landing at Renfrew. The purpose of this expedition is unknown. Could Somerled have been rising in favour of Donald MacWilliam (d. 1187), grandson of Duncan II and claimant to the Scots throne? In the Carmen de morte Sumerledi, composed by one William, who alleged he was an eyewitness, resistance to Somerled was led by Herbert, bishop of Glasgow. Somerled was killed at the very outset of battle, and his head, severed by a clerk, was brought to the bishop, who wept and gave credit for the victory to St Kentigern. Later Gaelic tradition, however, claimed that he died by treachery. The continuator of the annals of Tigernach styles Somerled 'king of Innse Gall and Kintyre' at his death. Somerled was probably buried on Iona, rather than at Saddell Abbey as has sometimes been suggested.
|
Nielsen Hayden genealogy
- 1164
[1, 2]