He was succeeded by his son Alexander, who was then in his seventeenth year, and was crowned at Scone on the following day. We now learn some further particulars of the coronation of the Scottish kings, and we are told by Fordun that the bishop of St. Andrews, the head of the Scotch Church, and the seven earls of Scotland—the earls of Fife, Stratherne, Atholl, Angus, Menteith, Buchan, and Lothian—took Alexander, brought him to Scone, and there raised him to the throne in honour and peace, with the approval of God and man, and with more grandeur and glory than any one till then, while all wished him joy and none gainsaid him. So King Alexander, as was meet, held his feast in state at Scone on that day, viz., Friday, and the Saturday following, viz., the Feast of St. Nicholas, as well as the next Sunday.[718]
The young king had barely reigned a year when he had to encounter the old enemies of the crown, the families of Macwilliam and Maceth, who now combined their forces, and under Donald Ban, the son of that Macwilliam who had been slain at Mamgarvia in 1187, and Kenneth Maceth, a son or grandson of Malcolm Maceth, with the son of one of the Irish provincial kings, burst into the province of Moray at the head of a large band of malcontents. A very important auxiliary, however, now joined the party of the king. This was Ferquhard or Fearchar, called Macintagart, the son of the ‘Sagart’ or priest who was the lay possessor of the extensive possessions of the old monastery founded by the Irish Saint Maelrubha at Applecross in the seventh century. Its possessions lay between the district of Ross and the Western Sea, and extended from Loch Carron to Loch Ewe and Loch Maree, where the name of Maelrubha was long venerated as Saint Maree, and Ferquhard was thus in reality a powerful Highland chief commanding the population of an extensive western region. The insurgents were assailed by him with great vigour, entirely crushed, and their leaders taken, whom he at once beheaded, and presented their heads to the new king as a welcome gift on the 15th of June, when he was knighted by the king as the reward of his prompt assistance.[719]
Of the districts which still maintained a kind of semi-independence of the Scottish crown as ancient provinces of Scotland, there now only remained the extensive region of Arregaithel or Argyll, forming the entire western seaboard of the country from the Firth of Clyde to Loch Broom, the northern part of which, however—North Argyll as it was called—consisting chiefly of the possessions of the ancient monastery of Applecross, were now brought by their lay possessor Macintagart into close connection with the crown. The remote and secluded position of Galloway too rendered it little amenable to the royal authority, and the Western Isles, one half of which were under the rule of a Norwegian petty king, and the other half belonged to the family of Somerled, still belonged to the kingdom of Norway. The attention of King Alexander was strongly drawn towards the necessity of bringing Argyll under subjection from the support its people afforded to the families of Macwilliam and Maceth. The head of the former family was at this time Gillescoph Mahohegan or Gillespic mac Eochagan, and he appears to have had the support of Roderic, son of Reginald, Lord of the Isles, and other chiefs of Argyll.
The account of these transactions is to be found in Fordun and Wynton alone, but there seems no reason to doubt their authority at this period. Fordun tells us that ‘during this time,’ that is, in 1221, ‘some unrighteous men of the race of Macwilliam, viz., Gillespic and his sons and Roderic, started up in the uttermost bounds of Scotland.’[720] Alexander was at the time at York, where he was betrothed to the English king’s eldest sister Joan, as yet a girl; but on his return with his bride Fordun tells us that ‘having raised an army out of Lothian and Galloway and other outlying provinces, the king sailed for Argyll, but a storm having arisen he was obliged to put back, and brought up at Glasgow in safety but not without danger. In the following year, however, after Whitsunday, he led back the army into Argyll. The men of Argyll were frightened. Some gave hostages and a great deal of money, and were taken back in peace, while others who had more offended against the king’s will forsook their estates and possessions and fled. But our lord the king bestowed both the land and the goods of these men upon his own followers at will, and thus returned in peace with his men.’[721]
Wynton gives the following account of it:—
This expedition seems to have thus lasted from Whitsunday till near Christmas, and to have been confined to Argyll south of the Mounth, and thus was this region also brought under subjection to the crown. The rebels appear to have taken refuge in Galloway, and here we find them witnessing a charter in that year of lands in Galloway to the monks of Melrose. After the abbot of Melrose; Alan son of Roland of Galloway; Fergus son of Uchtred; Edgar son of Dovenald; Duncan son of Gilbert Earl of Carrick, all lords of Galloway, appear the following names:—‘Gileskop Macihacain; Giladuenan son of Duvegal; Gillecrist son of Kenedi; Iwan son of Alewain; Gillenef Okeueltal; Gilleroth son of Gillemartin; Makeg son of Kyin; and Gillefakeneshi son of Gillin;’Gillin;’[723] all no doubt fully justifying Fordun’s epithet of ‘iniquus.’ The only account he gives of their fate is that ‘God gave them over, with their abettors, into King Alexander’s hand; and thus the land was no longer troubled by their lawlessness.’[724] In the following year, while the king was keeping his birthday at Forfar, John, earl of Caithness, who was son of Earl Harald the elder, came to him there and purchased back a part of his earldom which the king had taken from him the previous year on account of his having been supposed to be privy to the outrage committed by the people of Caithness on their bishop, Adam, whom they had burned in his own house.[725]
Galloway appears to have been still a constant source of disquiet to the kingdom. Alan, the son of Roland, lord of Galloway and Constable of Scotland, died in the year 1234, leaving three daughters, who were married to Norman barons, and one son, considered illegitimate, who during his father’s lifetime had married the daughter of the king of Man. The Norman barons divided the territory between them; ‘but,’ we are told in the Chronicle of Melrose, ‘the inhabitants of that land preferring one master rather than several, went to our lord the king with the request that he himself would accept the lordship of that inheritance, but the king was too just to do this. Thereupon the Gallwegians were angry above measure, and prepared for war. Moreover, they devastated with fire and sword some of the royal lands contiguous to themselves,’ and the king resolved to make a final effort to reduce it entirely to obedience.
‘In the following year our lord the king,’ says the chronicler, ‘mustered an army, and entered Galloway. Having reached a spot convenient for the purpose, he determined there to pitch his tents, for the day was now drawing towards evening. The Gallwegians, however, who had all day been hiding among the mountains, knew the place better, and, trusting to their local acquaintance with its difficulties, offered the king battle. In truth, the place was filled with bogs, which were covered over with grass and flowers, amongst which the larger portion of the royal army had involved itself. At the beginning of the battle the earl of Ross, called Makintagart, came up and attacked the enemies in the rear, and as soon as they perceived this they took to flight, and retreated into the woods and mountains, but they were followed up by the earl and several others, who put many of them to the sword, and harassed them as long as daylight lasted. On the next day the king, acting upon his accustomed humanity, extended his peace to as many as came to him, and so the surviving Gallwegians, with ropes round their necks, accepted his offer.’[726]
The illegitimate son of Alan, lord of Galloway, however, Thomas, went over to Ireland with Gilrodh, who incited him to his rebellion, and was no doubt the Gilleroth, son of Gillemartin, who appears among the followers of Gillescop Mahohegan, from whence he soon after returned, bringing with him a fleet and a body of Irish, with the son of one of their chieftains. ‘The Scots,’ we are told, ‘fled before him, and in their hasty flight arrived at a piece of water, in which many perished by means of that accursed army;’ but the bishop of Galloway and the abbot of Melrose, as soon as they heard of it, went, accompanied by the earl of Dunbar and his troops, to the district of Galloway, and informed Gilrodh that he must either make his submission to the king, or engage the earl’s army in battle. Perceiving his inferiority in numbers, Gilrodh followed their advice, and the king placed him for some time in the custody of the before-mentioned earl. Being thus deprived of all counsel and assistance, the bastard was obliged to sue for the king’s peace. He was imprisoned for a short time in Edinburgh Castle, and then the king gave him his freedom; and we hear no more of any resistance to the royal authority in this quarter, and they seem to have acquiesced in their incorporation into the kingdom.
There now remained but one object to be accomplished to complete the amalgamation of the different outlying provinces of the kingdom occupied by a Celtic population, and that was to wrest the possession of the Western Isles from the kingdom of Norway. Alexander first attempted to obtain the islands by treaty, and sent two of his bishops to Hakon, king of Norway, to ascertain if he would voluntarily surrender the islands as having been unjustly wrested from the Scottish crown by Magnus Barefoot; but Hakon refused, on the ground that Magnus had won them from Godred, king of the Isles, and that his right to the Isles had been confirmed by the king of Scots. The king then proposed to purchase the Isles, but this likewise was refused; and though the negotiations were frequently renewed, the Scots received no other answer.[727] In the year 1249, however, Harald, son of Olave, the Norwegian king of Man and the Isles, died, and was succeeded by his brother Reginald, who began to reign in the Isle of Man on the sixth of May, and was slain on the thirteenth of the same month near Russin, in the Isle of Man. The succession was then claimed by Harald, son of Godred Don, whose father was brother of Olave, the father of the slain king.[728] Alexander seems to have considered this a favourable opportunity to endeavour to obtain the Isles by force of arms, and having collected forces throughout all Scotland, he prepared for a voyage to the Hebrides, and determined to subdue these islands under his dominion. According to the Saga, he declared ‘that he would not desist till he had set his standard east on the cliffs of Thurso, and had reduced under himself all the provinces which the Norwegian monarch possessed to the westward of the German Ocean.’[729] With this view he sent to one of the island kings of the family of Somerled, and appointed a meeting with him in the islands, when he endeavoured to persuade him to renounce his allegiance to King Hakon, and to surrender to him the castle of Cairnburgh, in the Treshinish Isles, on the west coast of Mull, and three other castles, but without success, and the further prosecution of his enterprise was arrested by death. He was seized with severe illness, and having been carried to the island of Kerrera, on the coast of Lorn, he died there. The Scottish army then broke up, and removed the king’s body to Scotland. The Saga reports that the king had seen a vision while lying in the Sound of Kerrera, in which Saint Olave of Norway, Saint Magnus of Orkney, and Saint Columba appeared to him, and prophesied evil to him if he would not abandon his purpose;[730] but how Saint Columba, whose successors had suffered such evils at the hands of the Northmen, should have appeared in such company is not explained.
King Alexander was buried in the church of Melrose on the 8th of July 1249, and was succeeded by his son Alexander, a boy in his eighth year.[731] Notwithstanding his extreme youth he was crowned at Scone on the 13th of July 1249, and Fordun gives us a very graphic account of the ceremony. Walter Comyn, earl of Menteith, and all the clergy, having ‘joined unto them some earls—viz., Malcolm, earl of Fife, and Malise, earl of Stratherne, and a great many other nobles—led Alexander, soon to be their king, up to the cross which stands in the cemetery at the east end of the church. Here they placed him upon the celebrated coronation stone, which was covered with silken cloths interwoven with gold, and the bishop of St. Andrews, assisted by the rest, consecrated him king.’ The boy king then received the homage of the feudal baronage of the kingdom, and a strange ceremony followed, probably now for the first time, and intended to mark the cordial acceptance of the king by the entire Gaelic population as the heir and inheritor of a long line of traditionary Gaelic monarchs. A Highland sennachy advanced, and, kneeling before the fatal stone, hailed him as the ‘Ri Alban,’ and repeated his pedigree according to Highland tradition through a long line of Gaelic kings, partly real and partly mythic, till he reached Gaithal Glas, the ‘eponymus’ of the race.[732]
It is probable that the seven earls, though not specifically mentioned by Fordun, took part in this ceremony, as he tells us that in the following year, ‘on the 19th of June,’ the king and the queen, his mother, with bishops and abbots, earls and barons, and other good men, both clerics and laymen, in great numbers, met at Dunfermline, and took up, in great state, the bones of the blessed Margaret, sometime queen of Scots, out of the stone monument where they had lain through a long course of years, and them they laid with the deepest devoutness in a shrine of deal set with gold and precious stones;[733] but when we turn to the Chartulary of Dunfermline, we find from an inquisition taken in the year 1316, that the enshrining took place ‘in the presence of King Alexander the Third, the seven bishops, and the seven earls of Scotland.’[734]
During the earlier years of Alexander’s reign, the Comyns seem to have held the principal sway in Scotland, at the head of whom was Walter, earl of Menteith; but when he had reached the age of fourteen, Henry, king of England, had an interview with him at Rokesburgh, the result of which was that the bishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow, and the earl of Menteith, who were at the head of the national party, were disgraced, and a regency appointed of the earl of Dunbar and others, who were more favourable to the king of England, for the seven years that would elapse till Alexander attained majority.[735]
During this time no attempt appears to have been made to renew the contest for the Western Isles, but when the king attained the age of twenty-one, he announced his intention of subduing the Hebrides if life were granted to him. The war was commenced by the earl of Ross, the son of that Macintagart who had proved so important an auxiliary to the crown, with others of the Ross-shire chiefs, with a kind of guerilla warfare against the isle of Skye and those other islands which lay opposite their territories. In the summer of 1262 letters reached the king of Norway from the kings of the Sudreys complaining of these hostilities, and warning the king of King Alexander’s avowed intention of wresting the islands from him by force, upon which King Hakon resolved to anticipate by an expedition to the Sudreys with a large force to repress these hostilities, and confirm the island chiefs in their allegiance to him. He accordingly, in the beginning of 1263, issued orders for collecting his forces, which were to assemble at Bergen towards the commencement of summer.
On the 15th of July Hakon sailed with a large fleet, consisting, according to the Saga, of upwards of 120 sail, and in a few days arrived in Orkney, and anchored in Elwick harbour in Shapinshay, opposite Kirkwall. King Alexander was not idle in preparing for the impending attack. He repaired the fortifications of Inverness, Wigtown, Stirling, and other castles, and increased their garrisons. He built vessels, and strongly garrisoned the castle of Ayr, where the chief attack was expected. On the 10th of August Hakon sailed from Orkney with his fleet, which had been reinforced, doubled Cape Wrath, swept past Lewis, and entered the Sound of Skye, where he anchored south of the island of Raasay. Here he was joined by Magnus, king of Man, and other Norwegian barons. He then proceeded through the Sound of Mull to Kerrera, where the forces gathered in the Isles were already assembled. From Kerrera, he sent 50 ships under the command of King Magnus and some Norwegian barons, and of King Dugald, of the family of Somerled, to Kintyre, and 15 ships to Bute, while he himself brought up at Gigha. The castles of Dunaverty in Kintyre and Rothesay in Bute having capitulated, he now sailed with the whole fleet and anchored in Lamlash harbour in Arran. King Alexander was stationed with the greater part of his forces at Ayr, on the opposite mainland, and negotiations now commenced for a peace, in which the Norwegian endeavoured to get his right to the whole islands acknowledged, while the Scots merely protracted them till the summer should pass and the bad weather of autumn set in. In this they were successful, and it was late in September when they were broken off. King Hakon then sent 60 of his ships under leaders of Somerled’s family to sail into Loch Long and ravage the adjacent districts, while he himself prepared to land with the main force at Largs, to which place the Scottish king had moved, and was encamped there with his army. A great storm, however, broke out on the night of the 30th of September, and lasted two days. Ten of the vessels sent to Loch Long were wrecked, and the main fleet off Largs suffered greatly.[736]
Of the battle of Largs which followed we have two accounts, one in the Norse Saga of Hakon IV., the other by Fordun; and it is possible that while the one makes too light of the Norwegian loss, the other may make their defeat more complete than it really was. Fordun’s account is that, ‘on the very day that both the kings had appointed for battle, there arose at sea a very violent storm which dashed the ships together; and a great part of the fleet dragged their anchors and were roughly cast on shore whether they would or not. Then the king’s army came against them and swept down many, both nobles and serfs, and a Norwegian king; Hakon’s nephew, a man of great might and vigour, was killed. On account of this the king of the Norwegians himself, sorrowing deeply, hurried back in no little dismay to Orkney, and while wintering there, awaiting a stronger force to fight it out with the Scots, he died.’[737] Although the Saga does not admit that the Norwegians were defeated, it states that five days after the battle King Hakon departed with his fleet, and sailed through the Western Isles till he arrived in the Orkneys, where he remained while the most part of the troops sailed to Norway; and while the Saga makes the most of the grants he is said on his return to have made to those Sudreyan kings of the family of Somerled who adhered to him, and even avers that, ‘in this expedition King Hakon regained all those provinces which Magnus Barefoot had acquired and conquered from the Scotch and the Sudreyans,’ it is obvious from the results that the expedition had in reality failed. King Hakon died in the Bishop’s Palace at Kirkwall on the 15th of December 1263, and was succeeded by his son Magnus as king of Norway. The results of the battle of Largs and the death of King Hakon substantially left the Western Isles at the mercy of King Alexander; and Fordun tells us that he no sooner heard of King Hakon’s death than he got a strong army together and made ready to set out with a fleet towards the Isle of Man. When he had reached Dumfries on his way, King Magnus of Man met him, and agreed to do homage for his petty kingdom which he was to hold of him for ever. The king then sent the earls of Buchan and Mar, and Alan the Hostiary, with a band of knights and natives, to the Western Isles, ‘where they slew those traitors who had the year before encouraged the king of Norway to go to war with Scotland. Some of them they put to flight, and, having hanged some of the chiefs, they brought with them thence exceeding great plunder.’[738]
King Magnus of Man died on the 24th of November 1265, and this paved the way for a treaty between the kings of Scotland and of Norway, by which, for payment of a sum of 4000 marks and an annual payment to the crown of Norway of 100 marks, the Isle of Man and all the Sudreys were finally ceded to King Alexander, the Orkneys and Shetland being excepted; and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction and metropolitan rights of the archbishop of Drontheim over Man and the Isles reserved. The treaty was concluded in July 1266, and thus were the Sudreys or Western Isles finally annexed to the kingdom of Scotland.[739]
Alexander III. had two sons, Alexander and David, and one daughter, Margaret, who was married to Eric, king of Norway, but in the course of three years he was left childless. His son David died at Stirling at the end of June in the year 1281. On the 9th of April 1283 his daughter Margaret died, leaving an only daughter Margaret, commonly called the Maid of Norway, and on the 28th of January following died Alexander, prince of Scotland.
The king immediately summoned the Estates of Scotland to meet at Scone on the 5th of February, and there they became bound to acknowledge Margaret, princess of Norway, as the legitimate heir of their sovereign, ‘failing any children whom Alexander might have, and failing the issue of the prince of Scotland deceased, in the whole kingdom and the island of Man, and the whole other islands belonging to the kingdom of Scotland.’ The nobles present will show that the Estates now represented the entire territory of Scotland. There were the earls of Buchan, Dunbar, Stratherne, Lennox, Carrick, Mar, Angus, Menteith, Ross, Sutherland, Fife, and Atholl, of whom four were Norman intruders into Celtic earldoms, and the earl of Orkney represented the earldom of Caithness; and there were twenty-four barons, of whom eighteen at least represented the Norman baronage of the kingdom; while the Celtic element is represented only by Alexander of Argyll, Angus son of Donald, and Alan son of Rotheric, the native rulers of Argyll and the Isles.[740]
King Alexander, thus left childless, married Yolande, daughter of the Count de Dreux, on the 14th of October 1285, in the hope of obtaining a male heir to the Crown, but was killed on the 19th of March following, having been thrown from his horse in the dusk of the evening while riding from Queensferry to Kinghorn to visit his queen.[741]
FEUDAL
SCOTLAND
W. & A. K. Johnston Edinburgh & London.
The young Maid of Norway died in Orkney, when on her passage from Norway to take possession of her kingdom, in the end of September 1290, and thus terminated the last native dynasty of Scottish monarchs of Celtic descent in the male line, and Scotland, with her united provinces, her feudal institutions, and her mixed population, now became a prize to be contested for between the English monarch, who asserted his right as her lord paramount, and the various Norman barons who claimed her as their inheritance through descent in the female line from her native monarchs. It is with the Celtic portion of her population alone that this work is now mainly concerned.
620. The first-known earl of Atholl was Madach Comes, who appears as witness to charters of Alexander I. and David I. He is called in the Orkneyinga Saga ‘Moddadr, Jarl af Atjoklum,’ and is there said to be son of ‘Melkolmr, brother of King Melkolf, father of David, who is now king of Scots’ (chap. lvii.). Melkolf is obviously Malcolm Ceannmor, and other MSS. read Melmare in place of Melkolmr, which is probably the true reading, as in the Book of Deer we find Malmori d’Athotla witnessing one of the charters. Wynton has a curious story that Malcolm Ceannmor was an illegitimate son of King Duncan, by the miller of Forteviot’s daughter, and that he had two legitimate brothers. The latter seems to be well founded, and the former may have been raised by the partisans of Donald to strengthen his claim upon the throne.
621. In the Chartulary of St. Andrews is a memorandum of a charter by ‘Edelradus vir venerande memorie filius Malcolmi regis Scotiæ Abbas de Dunkelden et insuper Comes de Fyf,’ confirmed by his brothers Eadgar and Alexander, because the lands had been granted to him by his parents ‘in juvenili etate’ (p. 115).
622. For Godred Crovan see Munch’s edition of Chron. of Man, pp. 3, 50. The Magnus Barefoot’s Saga seems to have combined the account of two expeditions of that king in 1093 and 1098 into one. But the distinct statement that he conquered the Western Isles during the reign of Malcolm, and while Godred and his son Lagman were still alive, leaves no doubt that his first expedition took place in the last year of Malcolm’s reign.
623. Sax. Chron. ad an. 1093.
624. Fordun, Chron. B. v. c. xxi. It is usually stated on Fordun’s authority that Donald Ban had obtained the assistance of Magnus, king of Norway, who had just conquered the Western Isles, but there is no expression to this effect in Fordun’s Chronicle. The words ‘auxilio regis Norwegiæ’ are interpolated by Bower.
625. Wynton, B. vii. c. 3.
626. Sax. Chron. ad an. 1093.
627. Sax. Chron. ad an. 1093.
628. Duncanus filius regis Malcolumb constans hereditarie rex Scotiæ. Nat. MSS. of Scot., Part i. No. ii. The authenticity of this charter was at one time doubted, but it is now recognised as genuine. See Introduction, p. viii.
629. Chart. Dunf. p. 3. King David I., who remodelled the foundation in his charter, confirms these lands which had been given by his brother Duncan. The appearances of Eadgar as a witness to the first charter, and the expression in this ‘dona Duncani fratris mei’ without qualification, are a strong indication that he was considered legitimate. The imputation of bastardy was first made by William of Malmesbury, and adopted from him by Fordun. It seems to have been the fruit of subsequent claims by his descendants.
630. Chron. Cumbriæ apud Dug. Mon. i. p. 400; but the authority of this chronicle is not great. William Fitz Duncan is, however, historical.
631. Sax. Chron. ad an. 1094.
632. See Transactions of Ant. Soc., vol. ii. page 480, for paper by Professor Stuart ‘on the reign of Duncan the Second.’
633. William of Malmesbury tells us (B. v. § 400) ‘Solus fuit Edmundus Margaretæ filius a bono degener, qui Duvenaldi patrui nequitiæ particeps, fraternæ non inscius necis fuerat, pactus scilicet regni dimidium.’ This statement is confirmed by the Ulster Annals, which have ‘1094 Donnchadh mac Maelcolaim Ri Albain domarbhadh o braithribh fein i. o Domnall agus o Etmond (Duncan, son of Malcolm, king of Alban, slain by his brothers Donald and Edmund) per dolum.’
634. William of Malmesbury, Hist. Regum, B. v. § 400. The crime was the slaughter of Duncan. His language here is not very consistent with his branding Duncan as a bastard and a usurper.
635. Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 175. The Scalachronica says that he died at Dunkeld, and was buried in Iona, which is unlikely, as the Isles did not then belong to Scotland. The continuation of Tighernac has at 1099, ‘Domnall mac Donnchada Ri Alban do dalladh do braithribh fein.’
636. Chron. of Man, ed. Munch, p. 5. The Chronicle inserts an Irishman, Donald mcTadg, before Ingemund, but his true period was after the death of Magnus Barefoot in 1103.
637. Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis, p. 347.
638. It is obvious that in Magnus Barefoot’s Saga the expeditions made in the first and in the fifth years of his reign have been confounded together. Fordun in his Chronicle (vol. ii. p. 213) says in general terms:—‘While these three—namely Donald, Duncan, and Edgar too—were struggling for the kingdom in this wise, the king of the Noricans, Magnus, the son of King Olave, son of King Harold, surnamed Harfager, sweeping the gulfs of the sea with a host of seamen, subdued the Orkneys to his dominion, and the Mevanian islands both of Scotland and England, which indeed for the most part used to belong to Scotland by ancient right;’ to which Bower adds that it was by the assistance of Magnus that Donald Ban usurped the throne on the death of his brother King Malcolm. By all later writers the cession of the Isles is attributed to him, but in fact the connection between Donald Ban and the Western Isles is entirely fictitious, and belongs to our spurious history. The Saga distinctly states that the first agreement was made with Malcolm Ceannmor himself and not with Donald Ban, and this is confirmed by the Saga of Hacon iv., which tells us that Alexander ii. sent an embassy to King Haco to ask ‘if he would give up the territories in the Hebrides which King Magnus Barefoot had unjustly wrested from Malcolm, predecessor to the Scottish king;’ to which Haco replied that Magnus had settled with Malcolm what districts the Norwegians should have in Scotland or in the islands which lay near it. He affirmed, however, that the kings of Scotland had no sovereignty in the Hebrides at the time when King Magnus won them from King Godred.—Johnstone, Chronicle of Man, p. 41.
The date of the second expedition is fixed by the Saxon Chronicle, which places the accession of Eadgar in the year 1097; and in the following year, 1098, has, ‘Earl Hugh was slain in Anglesey by Vikings.’
639. Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 170.
640. Chron. Man, ed. Munch, p. 7. The metrical prophecy attributed to Merlin, which seems to have been written not long after, has some lines evidently referring to Magnus’s conquest of the Isles, which may be thus translated (Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 117):—
The Noric chief who acquires lands bounded on all sides by the sea and reigns six years and nine months is obviously Magnus, and the ‘rex Angligenus’ Eadgar.
641. Fordun, Chronicle, vol. ii. p. 214.
642. National MSS. of Scotland, Nos. iii. iv. v. and vi. The learned editor states in his introduction (p. viii.) that he would have included a fifth charter if the original had not been lost. Copies, however, exist, and it is printed in Raine’s North Durham, Ap. No. vii. The editor seems to consider that it was a genuine charter; but the expressions it contains, and especially the names of the witnesses, seem to the author to mark it out as unmistakably spurious.
643. The Saxon Chronicle has in 1107, ‘In this year also died king Eadgar of Scotland on the Ides of January, and Alexander, his brother, succeeded to the kingdom as King Henry granted him.’ The older chronicles place his death at Dunedin or Edinburgh, and the former name has by the later chronicles and by Fordun been mistaken for Dundee. See Chron. of Picts and Scots, pp. 175, 181, 289.
644. They appear in this order in the charter of David I., confirming the previous grants to Dunfermline. ‘Dona Duncani fratris mei, Dona Eadgari fratris mei, Dona Ethelredi fratris mei, Dona Alexandri regis fratris mei.’
645. Ailred in his tract ‘De Bello apud Standardum’ makes Robertus de Brus, in his address to David I., say ‘Quis Eadgarum fratrem tuum, immo plusquam fratrem, nisi noster exercitus, regno restituit? Tu ipse rex cum portionem regni quam idem tibi frater moriens delegavit, a fratre Alexandro reposceres, nostro certe terrore, quidquid volueras sine sanguine impetrasti.’ What the ‘portio regni’ given to David was will after appear.
646. Edgarus homo erat dulcis et amabilis, cognato suo Edwardo per omnia similis, nihil tyrannicum, nihil durum, nihil avarum in suos exercens sed cum maxima caritate et benevolentia subditos regens.—Ailred, Genealogia regum ap. Twysden, p. 367.
647. Porro Alexander clericis et monachis satis humilis et amabilis erat, cæteris subditorum supra modum terribilis, homo magni cordis, ultra vires suas se in omnibus extendens. Erat autem litteratus, et in ordinandis ecclesiis, in reliquiis sanctorum perquirendis, in vestibus sacerdotalibus librisque sacris conficiendis et ordinandis studiosissimus, omnibus etiam advenient bus supra vires liberalissimus; circa pauperes vero ita devotus ut in nulla re magis delectari, quam in eis suscipiendis, lavandis, alendis vestiendisque videretur. (Ib.)
648. National MSS., Nos. viii. ix. and x.
649. Chart. Scone, p. 1.
650. Chart. Scone, p. 3.
651. A.D. 1093 Fothudh ardepscop. Albain in Christo quievit.—An. Ult. Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 370.
652. Modach filius Malmykel vir piissime recordacionis episcopus Sancte Andree cujus vita et doctrina tota regio Scotam feliciter est illustrata.—Chart. St. And. p. 117.
653. See Haddan and Stubbs’ Councils, vol. ii. part i. p. 170, for this date. Eadgar died on 13th January 1107.
654. Sim. Dun. Hist. Reg. Angliæ, ed. Surtees, i. 96.
655. See Haddan and Stubbs’ Councils, vol. ii. part i. pp. 189-214, for the documents connected with this controversy. The principal authority is Eadmer’s own account coupled with that of Simeon of Durham.
656. Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 190.
657. Fordun, Chron. B. v. c. xxviii. Bower, who was himself abbot of this monastery, places its foundation in the year 1123, and adds to Fordun’s account the words ‘non minus mirifice quam miraculose.’ He explains this expression by telling us that Alexander, crossing the Queensferry on affairs of state, encountered a great storm, and was driven by a south-westerly gale upon the island of Emonia, where he was received by a hermit who served Saint Columba in a small chapel, and lived upon shellfish and the milk of one cow. Here the king was obliged by the gale to remain three days, and, in fulfilment of a vow which he had made in the extremity of his peril, founded the monastery in honour of Saint Columba.—Scotichron. B. v. c. xxxvii. The same legend was told to the author in the island of Iona, as having happened there, and the hermit’s cave where Alexander was said to have been received was pointed out to him on the west side of the island.
658. This gift must have been made during the life of Malcolm Ceannmor, and the donor been either Donald Ban or Melmare, very probably the former.
659. Per latrinam.
660. Scotichron. B. v. c. xxxvi.
661. Wynton, Chron. B. vii. c. v.
662. Chart. of Scone, p. 2. Mr. Burton seems also (vol. i. p. 387) doubtful as to the authority for this event, which he appears to think rests on that of Wynton alone. He terms the assailants ‘a northern army led by the Maarmor of Ross, assisted by the Maarmor of the Merne;’ but where he gets these imaginary leaders, or why he converts the Gaelic title ‘Mormaer’ into the equally barbarous form of ‘Maarmor,’ it is difficult to say. The title of Mormaer had ceased to be used, and had passed into that of comes or earl before this time. The Ulster Annals have in 1116, ‘Ladmuinn mac Domhnall hua righ Alban domarbh do feraibh Moriab’ (grandson of the king of Alban, slain by the men of Moray). He must have been son of that Domnall who was killed in 1085, and this fixes the date of this insurrection at 1116.
663. The Saxon Chronicle, which is the oldest authority for the date, places his death on the 9th of the kalends of May, which was the preceding day, the 23d of April. The Chronicon Elegiacum has Strivelin as the place of his death. The St. Andrews Chronicle calls it Crasleth, and another, which is a corrected version of the same Chronicle, Strafleth (Chron. Picts and Scots. pp. 175, 290); but these are corruptions of the name Stirling, the Cymric form of which was Ystrevelyn, and the Gaelic Sruthlinn.
664. Ailred, Gen. Regum, makes David say, ‘cum adolescens in regia curia servirem.’
665. Malmesbury, Hist. Regum, B. v. § 400.
666. David Comes filius Malcolmi regis Scotorum omnibus amicis suis Francis et Anglis et Scotis.—Chart. Kelso, p. 1.
667. Henrico regnante in Anglia et Alexandro regnante in Scotia.
668. Tempore enim Henrici regis Anglie, Alexandro Scottorum rege in Scotia regnante, misit eis Deus David predicti regis Scotie germanum, in principem et ducem.—Chart. Glasgow, p. 4.
669. David vero, Cumbrensis regionis princeps, amore precipue Dei, partim quoque (ob) religiosi dilectionem et ammonitionem, terras ecclesie Glasguensi pertinentes, singulis Cumbrie provinciis, que sub dominio et potestate ejus erant (non enim toti Cumbrensi regioni dominabatur) inquirere fecit.—Ib.
670. Cumbria dicebatur quantum modo est, episcopatus Karleolensis et episcopatus Glasguensis et episcopatus Candidecase.—Palg. Documents and Records, p. 70.
671. See Lives of St. Ninian and St. Kentigern in the series of Scottish Historians, p. 334. This also appears from a charter by David after he became king, to Robertus de Brus, of the valley of the Annan, ‘a divisa Dunegal de Stranit usque ad divisam Randulfi Meschin ... cum omnibus illis consuetudinibus quas Randulfus Meschin unquam habuit in Carduill, et in terra sua de Cumberland.’—National MSS. No. xix.
672. David Comes Johanni episcopo et Cospatricio et Colbano et Rodberto fratribus, et omnibus suis fidelibus Tegnis et Drengis de Lodoneio et de Teuegetedale.—Nat. MSS. of Scot. No. xii.
673. Ib. No. xiv.
674. No greater mistake has been made in Scotch history than that which limits Eadgar’s gift to David to Cumbria. Our latest historian, Mr. Burton, says that Edgar ‘left it as a bequest or injunction that Cumbria should be ruled by his younger brother David’ (vol. i. p. 387); but this is a very imperfect account of the transaction, and Mr. Burton seems to have merely adopted the statement of previous writers without any independent investigation.
675. Omnibus per regnum suam in Scotia et Lodoneia constitutis.—Nat. MSS. Scot. No. xv.
676. Chart. Scon. p. 1.
677. Chart. Dunf. pp. 3, 5, 8, 11, 14, 16, 18.
678. Orderic Vital, B. viii. c. xxii. That David was in England in 1130 appears from the Exchequer Rolls, but the trial here referred to took place, according to Roger de Hoveden, in 1131. Edward Constabularius witnesses charters of Alexander I. and David I., and in one charter he calls himself filius Siwardi. As constable he was at the head of the military array of the Norman and English population.
679. 1130 Bellum etir firu Albain et feru Moreb i torcradar iiij. mile do feraibh Morebh im a righ .i. Oengus mac ingene Luluigh, mile vero d-feraibh Albain i fritgbuin.—An. Alt. Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 371. The Annals of Innisfallen have ‘Slaughter of the men of Muriamh in Alban.’—Ib. p. 170.
680. Fordun, Chron. B. v. c. xxxiii.
681. Ailred, Eulogium Davidis, apud Pinkerton, p. 447.
682. According to Stubbs (Twysden, p. 713) he was consecrated by Archbishop Thomas, but Thomas died in 1114, which places the date too early. Olave’s letter is preserved in the ‘White Book’ at York. It is addressed to ‘T. eadem gratia Eborum archiepiscopo,’ and requests him to consecrate a bishop elected from the monks at Furness. By T. Thurstan is no doubt meant who was archbishop from 1114 to 1140. William of Newburgh seems to have known nothing certain about his earlier history. He says he was born ‘in obscurissimo Angliæ loco’ and acted as scribe to certain monks, without indicating localities. In his profession, quoted by Stubbs, he says, ‘Ego Wymundus sanctæ ecclesiæ de Schid,’ or Skye, which brings him from the Isles.
683. Will. Newb. Hist. B. i. c. xxiv. It is a pity William of Newburgh did not name the province he invaded. The scene of this battle is fixed by local tradition in Galloway, and a stream which flows into Wigton Bay called Bishop’s burn is said to have become crimson with blood.
684. 1134 Melcolmus capitur et in arcta ponitur in turre Rokesburch custodia.—Chron. Melrose. Tandem capitur et ab eodem rege David in turre castri de Marchemond arta custodia trucidatur.—Fordun, Annalia, i. Wymund’s clerical character probably saved his life and consigned him to perpetual imprisonment instead.
685. Mr. Robertson, in his Scotland under her Early Kings, propounds a strange theory with regard to Wymund. He considers that Orderic of Vital is mistaken in saying that Malcolm, who joined with Angus, earl of Moray, in 1130, was son of Alexander the First; that Fordun is mistaken in saying that Malcolm mac Heth was the same person as Wymund; that the two Malcolms were the same person; and that he was not the son but the brother of Angus, earl of Moray, their father Heth being a previous earl and the same person as the Beth Comes who witnesses charters of Alexander the First. But it is impossible to deal with authorities in this fashion, and Mr. Robertson’s usual sound judgment seems on this occasion to have deserted him.
686. Rex Scotorum innumerabilem coegit exercitum, non solum eos qui ejus subjacebant imperio, sed et de Insulanis et Orcadensibus non parvam multitudinem accersiens.
687. Ailred, de Bello apud Standardum. Fordun, vol. i. p. 444. See also Fordun, vol. ii. p. 425, note. Richard of Hexham, a contemporary writer, gives the following account of the army:—‘Coadunatus autem erat iste nefandus exercitus de Normannis, Germanis, Anglis, de Northymbranis, et Cumbris, ed Teswetadala, de Lodonea, de Pictis, qui vulgo Galleweienses dicuntur et Scottis.’—De Gest. Reg. Stephani.
688. See Fordun, Chron. vol. vi. p. 430, note.
689. John of Hexham, Chron., ad an. 1153.
690. 1153, 6th November. Eo die, apud Scotiam, Sumerled et nepotes sui, scilicet filii Malcolmi, associatis sibi plurimis, insurrexerunt in regem Malcolm; et Scotiam in magna parte perturbantes inquietaverunt.—Chron. S. Crucis. See also Fordun, Annalia, i.
691. 1156 Dovenaldus filius Malcolmi apud Witerne captus est et incarceratus a turre de Rokesburc cum patre suo.—Chron. Melrose.
692. 1157 Malcolm Machet cum rege Scottorum pacificatus est.—Chron. S. Crucis. He witnesses a charter of King Malcolm to the monastery of Dunfermline as Melcolm mac Eth, in which he is placed immediately after Gilbertus Comes de Angus, and before Walterus filius Alani, the high steward of Scotland before 1160; and soon after King Malcolm grants letters of protection to the monks of Dunfermline addressed ‘Malcolmo Comiti de Ros et omnibus ministris suis.’—Chart. Dun. pp. 24, 25.
693. Will. Newb. Chron. B. i. c. xxiv.
694. Chron. Manniæ. Munch’s ed., pp. 10, 80.
695. 1160 Malcolmus rex Scotorum venit de exercitu Tolose, cumque venisset in civitatem que dicitur Pert, Fereteatht comes et v. alii comites irati contra regem quia perrexit Tolosam, obsederunt civitatem et regem capere volueruntvoluerunt, sed presumcio illorum minime prævaluit.—Chron. Mel.
Wynton gives the following account of it:—
Whom Wynton means by Gyllandrys Ergemawche it is difficult to say. William Fitz-Duncan, son of Duncan, king of Scotland, had attached himself to his uncle David throughout the whole of his career both as earl and as king, and distinguished himself as a commander in all his wars. He married Alice de Romellie, heiress of Skipton and Craven, by whom he had a son William and three daughters. The Orkneyinga Saga says of William Fitz-Duncan, that ‘he was a good man. His son was William the Noble, whom all the Scots wished to take for their king.’—Coll. de Reb. Alb. 346. William Fitz-Duncan was dead in 1151, when a charter was granted of Bolton by ‘Adeliza de Rumelli consensu et assensu Willelmi filii et hæredis mei et filiarum mearum,’ and among the witnesses is ‘Willelmo filio meo de Egremont.’ He was commonly called the Boy of Egremont, and is said to have died under age, but he may have lived till after 1160. This may have been the occasion in which the Scots wished to make him their king, and Wynton’s barbarous name Ergemawche may have been intended for Egremont.
696. 1160 Rex Malcolmus duxit exercitum in Galwaiam ter; et ibidem inimicis suis devictis federatis, cum pace et sine damno suo remeavit. Fergus princeps Galwaiæ habitum canonicum in ecclesia Sanctæ crucis de Ednesburch suscepit.—Chron. S. Crucis.
Malcolmus rex tribus vicibus cum exercitu magno perrexit in Galweia, et tandem subjugavit eos.—Chron. Mel.
697. Fordun, Annalia, iv.
698. Account of the Family of Innes (Spalding Club), p. 51.
699. 1164 Sumerledus regulus Eregeithel jam per annos xii. contra regem Scotorum Malcolmum dominum suum naturalem impie rebellans, cum copiosum de Ybernia et diversis locis exercitum contrahens apud Renfriu applicuisset, tandem ultione divina, cum filio suo et innumerabili populo a paucis comprovincialibus ibidem occisus est.—Chron. Mel.
Anno mocolxoivo Sumerledus collegit classem centum sexaginta navium, et applicuit apud Renfriu, volens totam Scotiam sibi subjugare. Sed ultione divina a paucis superatus, cum filio suo et innumerabili populo ibidem occisus et.—Chron. Manniæ.
700. This poem is printed in Fordun, Chron. vol. i. p. 449.
701. Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 374. The Gael seem to have applied to him the same epithet of Cenmor, borne by his great-grandfather. There is preserved in a MS. at Cambridge a supposed vision of a certain cleric after Malcolm’s death in which he converses with the glorified king. The original is printed in Fordun, Chron. i. 452. When he asks—‘Cur sic, care, taces?’ the king answers, ‘Pro me loquitur mea vita.’ The cleric then says, ‘Eger eras longum?’ to which the king replies, ‘Jam bene convalui.’
He seems to have been sickly for several years, and Fordun says that after Somerled’s defeat his brother William was made warden of the kingdom.
702. Fordun, Annalia, vii.
703. Per montanos Scotos, quos Brutos vocant et Galwalenses.—Fordun, Annalia, x. Roger of Hoveden, a contemporary writer, has also, ‘Per Scotos et Galwalenses suos.’ The former may have been the people of Moray. There is a curious document called Letters-patent by William the Lyon in 1171, recognising the right of Morgund, son of Gylleclery, to the earldom of Marr and that of Moray, first printed by Selden, but its authenticity is too doubtful to be founded on.—See Acts of Parl. vi. p. 13.
704. Fordun, Annalia, xi.
705. Roger Hoveden, Chron. ed. Stubbs, vol. ii. p. 63.
706. Fordun, Annalia, xiv. The details of the events in Galloway will be given in another part of this work.
707. 1179 Willelmus rex Scotiæ et David frater suus, cum comitibus et baronibus terræ cum exercitu magno et valido perrexerunt in Ros, ibique duo firmaverunt castella, nomen uni Dunscath, et nomen alteri Etherdover.—Chron. Mel. For the identification of these castles, see Origines Parochiales, vol. iii. pp. 458, 529.
708. Benedictus Abbas, or the writer under his name, a contemporary chronicler, gives the fullest account of this insurrection. He says, ‘Duvenaldus filius Willelmi filii Duncani, qui sæpius calumniatus fuerat regnum Scotiæ, et multoties furtivas invasiones in regnum illud fecerat; per mandatum quorundam potentum virorum de regno Scotiæ, cum copiosa multitudine armata, applicuit in Scotiam, devastans et comburens totam terram, quam attingebat; et homines fugabat, et omnes quos capere potuit interficiebat.’ He afterwards says of him, ‘qui nominabatur Machwilliam; qui etiam dicebat se regia stirpe genitum, et de jure parentum suorum, ut asserebat, regnum Scotiæ calumniabatur, et multa et incommoda faciebat sæpe Willelmo regi Scotiæ, per consensum et consilium comitum et baronum regni Scotiæ.’ William Fitz Duncan appears with Alice de Rumeli his wife, some time between 1120 and 1140, when he grants a charter in which Thursten, archbishop of York, is mentioned; and Alice survived him, and grants a charter, witnessed by her son, the Boy of Egremont, in 1151, who must have been born between 1130 and 1140.—Dugd. Mon. Donald Ban, if really a son, was either born of a previous marriage with a native Scottish woman, or was a bastard.
709. Fordun, Annalia, xvii.
Anno mclxxxv. Bellum fuit in Galweia inter Rolandum et Gillepatricium iiijo non. Julii feria v in quo plures occubuerunt ex parte Gillepatricii, ipse vero interiit cum multis aliis. Iterum Rolandus bellum habuit contra Gillecolmum, in quo frater Rolandi occubuit et Gillecolmus periit.—Chron. Mel.
Between 1178 and 1180 King William grants a charter to Gilbert, Earl of Stratherne, and among the witnesses is ‘Gillecolm Marescald.’ A few years later, but before 1189, the king grants to earl Gilbert the lands of Maddyrnin, but under this condition, ‘that no part of the land should ever be sold to Gillecolm Marescall, or his heirs, or any one of his race, seeing the said Gillecolm forfeited that land for felony done against the king, in that he rendered up the king’s castle of Heryn feloniously, and afterwards wickedly and traitorously went over to his mortal enemies, and stood with them against the king, to do him hurt to his power.’—Chart. Inchaffray, Pref. vi.
The king’s castle of Heryn is no doubt the ‘Rath Erenn in Alban’ mentioned in the Calendars in connection with St. Fillan, and which has been identified with Dundurn near the parish of St. Fillans.—Kalendars of Scottish Saints, p. 341.
Gillecolm may be the Malcolumb, son of Gillebert, who is mentioned by Benedictus Abbas as the real slayer of Uchtred.
710. Considerans itaque præfatus Willelmus Rex, quod oporteret eum regnum Scotiæ amittere, vel prædictum Mach William interficere, vel etiam a finibus regni sui expellere.—Benedict. Ab.
711. 1187 Willielmus rex Scottorum cum magno exercitu perrexit in Mureviam contra Macwilliam, cumque rex esset apud oppidum Inuernis cum exercitu, comites Scotiæ miserunt suos homines ad prædandum, inveneruntque Macwilliam supra moram quæ dicitur Mam Garvia prope Muref, et mox cum eo pugnaverunt, et Deo opitulante, eum cum multis aliis interfecerunt pridie Kal. Augusti feria vi.—Chron. Mel.
Benedictus Abbas says, ‘Et remansit rex in castello quod dicitur Ylvernis; et misit comites et barones suos cum Scottis et Galwensibus ad debellandum predictum hostem suum. Cumque profecti essent, orta est inter principes seditio; quidam enim illorum regem diligebant minime, quidam vero diligebant. Et hi procedere volebant, sed ceteri non permiserunt. Cumque contendissent, placuit eis quod principes exercitus remanerent, et permitterent exploratores, ut cibum caperent. Elegerunt ergo juvenes bellicosos fere tria millia, quos miserunt ad quærendum præfatum inimicum. Inter quos familia Rolandi filii Uchtredi erat.’erat.’
In the parish of Laggan, in the western part of Badenoch, are the farms of Garva mor and Garva beg, which probably indicate the locality.
712. Fordun, Annalia, xxii.
713. 1197 Ortum est prælium in Morevia juxta castrum Inuernis, inter homines regis et Rodericum et Thorfinum filium Comitis Haraldi, sed Deo procurante, regis hostes in fugam versi sunt, et prædictus Rodericus cum multis aliis cæsus interiit.
Postmodum idem rex Willelmus cum exercitu suo profectus est in Moreviam et in ceteras remotiores terræ suæ partes, ubi Haraldum comitem cepit eumque in castello de Rokesburch observari fecit, donec Thorfinnus filius ejus se pro patre suo obsidem daret.—Chron. Mel.
714. Roger Hoveden, vol. iv. pp. 10-12.
715. Fordun, Annalia, xxiv. Orkneyinga Saga, cxxxvi.
716. Fordun, Annalia, xxvii.
717. Chron. Lanercost, p. 371 note. ‘Anno Mccxi. Sed et rex Scotiæ filium Macwillelmi, Guthred scilicet, persequendo propriosque seductores destruendo, multorum cadavera inanimata reliquit.’—Chron. Mel.
Bower amplifies Fordun’s short account, and adds many particulars which may have some foundation in fact.—Scotichron. B. viii. c. 76.
718. Fordun, Annalia, xxix. The list of the seven earls corresponds with that in the foundation charter of Scone by Alexander the First, with the exception that we have here the earl of Menteith instead of the earl of Mar. It is obvious that the seven earls represented Scotland between the Forth and the Spey, with the addition of Lothian.
719. Anno Mccxv. Intraverunt in Moreviam hostes domini regis Scotiæ, sc. Dovenaldus Ban filius Macwillelmi et Kennauh mac Aht et filius cujusdam regis Hyberniæ, cum turba malignantium copiosa; in quos irruens Machentagar hostes regis valide prostravit, quorum capita detruncavit et novo regi nova munera præsentavit xvii. Kal. Julii propter quod dompnus rex novum militum ipsum ordinavit.—Chron. Mel.
For the connection of Macintagart with the church lands of Applecross, see Dr. Reeves’s paper on Saint Maelrubha in Pro. Ant. Soc. vol. iii. p. 276. Also Fordun, ii. 434, note.
720. Per idem tempus emerserunt quidam iniqui de genere Macwilliam, scilicet, Gillascoph et filii ejus et Rodoricus, in extremis Scociæ finibus.—Annalia, xlii.
721. Fordun, Annalia, xl.
722. Wynton, Chronicle, B. vii. c. ix.
723. Chart. Melrose, i. 172
724. In the Laws of Alexander II., under the year 1228, is one ‘De judicio de Gillescop. Dominica proxima ante festum Sancti Dionisii apud Edinburg in capitulo abbacie judicatum est de Gillescop Mahohegen per diversos judices tam Galwidie quam Scocie quod quia predictus Gillescop Mahohegen non duxerit ad diem statutum obsides de quibus dandis ad nominatum diem et locum ipsemet plegius fuit et alios plegios invenerat ipse deberet dare Regi vadia unde dominus Rex pacatus esset aut si ad voluntatem domini Regis vadia dare non posset ipsemet remaneret in vadium donec obsides promissos dedisset. Et fuit insuper in gravi misericordia domini Regis.’Regis.’—Act. Parl. vol. i. p. 68.
725. Fordun, Annalia, xlii.
726. Fordun, Annalia, xliii. Chron. Mel. ad an. 1235.
727. These particulars are taken from the Saga of Hakon IV., king of Norway.
728. Chron. Manniæ, Munch’s ed., p. 24.
729. Saga of Hakon IV.
730. Saga of Hakon IV.
731. Anno Domini Mccxlix. Eodem anno inclitus rex Scottorum Alexander, dum ad sedandas Ergadie partes proficiscitur, grave infirmitate corripitur, et ad insulam de Geruerei deportatur, ubi perceptis ecclesiasticis sacramentis, ejus felix anima ex hac luce eripitur et cum sanctis omnibus, ut credimus, celis collocatur. Corpus vero ejus, ut ipse adhuc vivus imperaverat ad Melrosensem ecclesiam transportatur et in ea more regio terre gremio commendatur.—Chron. Mel.
732. Fordun, Annalia, xlviii. This pedigree does not appear in the first edition of Fordun’s Annals, and was subsequently inserted apparently from one of the chronicles.—See Chron. Picts and Scots, pp. 133-144. Mr. Burton (vol. ii. p. 23) has taken his account of this coronation from Bower, and ignored the older account given in the genuine Fordun, and enters into a discussion as to whether he was crowned and anointed. This affords a good illustration of the danger of an uncritical use of authorities. Fordun says nothing as to his being crowned or anointed, and expressly states that David the Second was the first king who was anointed or crowned.—Annalia, cxlv. Bower suppresses this passage, and adds the crowning to his account of Alexander the Third’s inauguration.
733. Fordun, Annalia, xlix.
734. In præsentia domini Alexandri regis Scotorum sc. Alexandri tertii, septem episcoporum et septem comitum Scotiæ.—Chart Dun. p. 235. It appears from a concilium held at Edinburgh between 1250 and 1253, that the seven bishops were the bishops of St. Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dunblane, Brechin, Ross, and Caithness.—Act. Parl. vol. i. p. 83.
735. Chron. Mel.
736. So far the account has been taken from the Hakon’s Saga.
737. Fordun, Annalia, lv. The Chron. of Melrose confirms this account. Anno domini Mcclxiii. Haco rex Norwagie cum copiosa navium multitudine venit per mare occidentale ad debellandum regem Scotie. Sed re vera, ut ipse H[aco] affirmabat, non eum repulit vis humana sed virtus divina, que naves ejus confregit et in exercitum suum mortalitatem immisit: insuper et eos qui tercia die post solempnitatem Sancti Michaelis ad præliandum convenerant, per pedissequos patrie debellavit atque prostravit. Quapropter coacti sunt cum vulneratis et mortuis suis naves suas repetere et sic turpius quam venerant repatriare.—Chron. Mel.
738. Fordun, Annalia, lvi.
739. In his account of Hakon’s expedition, Mr. Burton, in describing the Western Isles, states that ‘there was a general division of the whole into Nordureyer or Norderies and Sudureyer or Suderies, the northern and southern division. The dividing line was at the point of Ardnamurchan, the most westerly promontory of the mainland of Scotland, so that Iona was included in the Suderies’ (vol. ii. pp. 28, 29). This is an entire mistake, in which Mr. Burton is merely repeating previous writers. It was first asserted by Dr. Macpherson without any proof, and adopted by all subsequent writers as a fact; but it is impossible not to see, from the most cursory perusal of the Sagas, that they include the entire Hebrides under the name of Sudreyer or Sudreys, to distinguish them from the Nordureyer or Orkneys.
740. Act. Parl. vol. i. p. 82.
741. A rock on the road between Burntisland and Kinghorn, known as the King’s Stone, marks the spot where he was killed.