Lord of the Isles

Lord of the Isles, now a Scottish title of nobility, originally referred to 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 Lords of the Isles remained functionally independent for many centuries. Their territory included the Hebrides, (Skye and Ross from 1438), Knoydart, Ardnamurchan, the Kintyre peninsula, Arran and Antrim in Ireland (see map).

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 Denmark, 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.

Related Topics:
Pict - Ireland - 4th century - 7th - 8th centuries - Viking - Norway - Denmark - Gaels - 875 - Harald Fairhair - Hebrides - Man - Shetlands - Orkney

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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, ruler of Man and the Isles, then encouraged the Isles to break away and become an independent state, but in 1095 the new King Magnus Bare Leg of Norway deposed Godred, and (according to Prebble) went on to use the threat of invasion to successfully bully King Edgar I of Scotland into ceding the Hebrides and Kintyre to Norway. Lavery cites a tale from the Orkneyinga saga, according to which in 1098 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).

Related Topics:
973 - Kenneth III - Cumbri - 1095 - Magnus Bare Leg - Edgar I of Scotland - Kintyre - Orkneyinga saga - 1098 - Malcolm III of Scotland - Tarbert - Loch Fyne

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