4 of the principal
galloglass captains: was the leading families of Argyll
and the Southern Hebrides during the thirteenth century-those of-
Sweyn
of Knapdale, The family of Sweyn of Knapdale in Scotland, was extinguished as
early as the thirteenth century, and left no descendant clans. Edgar's
stepbrother Æthelred fought Viking raids by settling in Danegelds given to Danish
soliders on the condition of Æthelred and his thegns. In 1013 Danish King Sweyn's
army ravaged England and Æthelred was forced to flee to Normandy in France. The
English nobles asked Sweyn to be their king but died in 1014 before being crowned.
Æthelred returned but died two years later. Sweyn's
son Cnut (or Canute) now led the Danish army in England and he came up against
Æthelred's son Edmund Ironside. After
the battle the two kings negotiated a peace in which Edmund kept Wessex while
Canute held the lands north of the River Thames. The Heimskringla tells us that
Ingebjorg's father Finn had been an adviser to Harald Hardraade and, after falling
out with Harald, was then made an earl by Sweyn
Estridsson, King of Denmark. Sweyn
who was Gorm's great-great-grandson is often considered to be Denmark's first
medieval King. Because of his relationship to Canute the Great he appeared a pretender
already from his early years. Snorri died in Saelings-dale-Tongue one winter after
the fall of King Olaf the Holy.
Sigurd
died three years before MacBeth. In 1054, Edward sent Sigurd into Scotland with
the intention of driving out Macbeth and installing Malcolm III as a client king
of Scots, indebted to them both. Earl Sigurd of Northumberland, who spirited Malcolm
to England after Duncan's death, invaded Scotland. King Sweyn of Denmark and King
Olaf of Sweden, already had divided Norway.
MacBeth was born in 1005, his father was Findlaech mac Ruadri, mormar of Moray
and his grandfather was Ruadhri (Roary). Moray was in the grip of a virtual civil
war between those loyal to one or other branch of the
Cenél Loairn.
The name, which is derived from the Norse SVEINN, occurs
in the records in such forms as Suibhe, Sween, Syfin, Suny, and others its bearers
were of mixed Norse-Gael descent, and the family was cognate with, but not
descended from, that of Somerled.
They possessed the lands of Knapdale in mid-Argyll, and of Kilcalmonell and Skipness
in Kintyre. The earlier domain of the
Cenél nGabraín, from Dalriada or Caledonia is eponymous for Gabrán
mac Domangairt, appears to have been centred in Kintyre and Knapdale and may have
included Arran, Jura and Gigha.
The Varangian Rurik of Rus born in Friesland
(Holland) established himself at Novgorod c.862 and founded a dynasty of Jutland.
In 995, Olaf went to Norway, overthrew Håkon, and became king. He commissioned
Lief Ericsson to carry Christianity
to Greenland. King Olaf was preceded by jarl Håkon Sigurdsson
who ruled Norway as a vassal of Harald Bluetooth and was preceded by Harald Greyhide.
Greyhide, the son of Eirik Bloodaxe and
grandson of Harald of Norway, was preceded by Håkon the Good. Håkon,
surnamed the Good, never married was brought up at the court of King Athelstan
in England and raised an expedition against his half-brother Erik Bloodaxe. Olaf
rescued many from Bloodaxe and sucessor Greyhide. Many of the Norwegian kings
of the Hairfair dynasty were in fact Danish vice-kings. Much of the
Western seaboard belonged to the Kingdom of Norway from
the 11th century to the Battle of Largs (1263). In the Hebrides, Håkon's
fleet linked up with the forces of king Magnus
of Man and king Dougal of the Hebrides.
The Sweyns (MacDougall
of Lorn, Macdonald of Islay
and Kintyre, 'de Ergadie,' MacRory of Bute) suffered the loss of these lands,
or at least of their superiority, just before the Hakon invasion. In 1481, the
Earl of Argyll captured Castle Sweyn, which had previously been held by the Lord
of the Isles.
The Northern Uí
Neill of Donegal divided into
three great clans, the Cenél
Eoghain, Cenél Conaill and Cenél Cairbre. During the ninth and
tenth centuries the Cenél Eoghain moved southward and eastward and as a
result became associated with County Derry.
1014 Battle
of Clontarf; the Norse-Gael of the Isles and Kintyre had fought with the Danes
against the Irish.
1212 -1213 the grandsons
of Somerled had besieged and sacked Derry in 1212 and 1214, and similar military
expeditions sent from Ireland to Scotland. The MacDonnells of the Hebrides invaded
Dalriada, A.D. 1211, the Coleraine territories
of Antrim, Down,
Derry, where they afterwards
made settlements.
The Ó Neill who fell fighting against the Vikings
near Dublin in 919. The grandson
Domhnall, who flourished about 943, was the first to bear the dynastic name of
Ó Neill. They were the chief family of the Cineal
Eoghain from 1241, and as overlords of Tir
Eoghain which included the modern counties of Tyrone, Derry and those northeastern
parts of Donegal, of the race of Owen,
and who was Chief of Cianacht of Glean
Geibhin (or Keenaght of Glengiven). The O'Cahans
were also Chiefs of the Creeve, now the Barony of Coleraine.
13th century
two major political events occurred affecting the course of affairs in the
West Highlands; the formidable invasion of King
Hakon of Norway in 1263; and then the war with England, which broke out after
the death of Alexander III in 1286. Some of them, without misfortune surrendered
their Scottish fiefs to Hakon, King Alexander III, either from clemency or weakness,
exacted no reparation, and they were allowed to retain their lands.
1261
Dugal, son of Sweyn, with the consent
of John his brother and heir, had bestowed the church of Kilcalmonell on the monks
of Paisley Abbey.
1262, the monks
of Paisley Abbey had to make over their patrimony to the Earl
of Menteith. Menteith confirmed the grant to Paisley, and the Sweyns appear
to have become his vassals. During the War of Independence John, son of Sweyn,
took the English side, and brought his galleys to join those of the
Bissets from Antrim, Ireland.
1267
Murcadh MacSuibhne (Desmond), probably
the same man who, with Angus of Islay, appeared before King Hakon in 1263, was
taken prisoner in Ireland by the Earl of Ulster, and died in prison. As mercenary
leaders they were to be found in Ulster, Munster, and Connaught. They became extensive
owners of land, and are stated to have possessed at one time a quarter of the
whole lands of Tirconnell,
now Donegal. In Ireland the name became MacSweeney, or Sweeney.
1284
the head of the family was Alexander of Lorn who, in that year, sat in the assembly,
which settled the crown on the Maid of Norway. His wife was a daughter of Sir
John Comyn and an aunt of the Red Comyn
slain by Bruce at Dumfries.
1296
For over a century the two powerful clans of MacDonald
and MacDougall controlled Argyll and the Isles. The MacDonald and MacDougall
clans, both fourth generation descendants
of Somerled, were involved in a long-standing feud for power, and between
them they controlled virtually every war galley available along the western
coast of Scotland. This created a problem for the puppet king, John
Balliol. The perpetrator of the killing was almost certainly Lame John MacDougall,
Lord of Lorne, eldest son of Ewan MacDougall, head of what was at that time the
most powerful family in the west of Scotland
1296
Colin Campbell was on his way to conduct a royal mission, to make contact
and hopefully peace with the MacDonalds of Islay to attempt peace talks with Angus,
chief of the MacDonalds. According to historic record the clan MacDougall originally
instigated the feud between the MacDonald and Campbell clans. Most of all, alliance
between the clans and the Scottish throne was feared between them. The Campbells
were newcomers to Argyll being in a stance of favor with King John Balliol. Also,
the Scottish king feared the large contingent of galleys owned by the clans MacDonald
and MacDougall.
1296 Lame John MacDougall hadn’t killed Sir Colin Campbell.
Glencoe has long been used as an example to point out the cruel natures and deceitfulness
of the clan Campbell.
1307 John of Lorn, son of Alexander, played a notable
part in the War of Independence. In the same yeare Edward, Sheriff of Argyll and
Innsegal appointed him.
1310 Edward's admiral, Alexander of Lorn proceeded
to Ireland, where he appears to have served for the next four years as, on several
occasions, we find the King ordering his Treasurer at Dublin to make provision
for him and his family, 'compassionating their losses and sufferings.'
1315
Edward Bruce landed at Larne,
invaded Ireland. John of Lorn was still the King's Admiral, and was active in
devising measures to oppose Bruce. Carrickfergus
castle was to remain the one sure bastion of the English in the late Middle
Ages. Earl William led the men of Ross,
Sutherland and Caithness at the battle. Two years later, King Robert II is
born in Paisley and Edward Bruce, brother of King Robert the Bruce, crowned High
King of All Ireland. He proclaimed himself king of all Ireland near Downpatrick.
In the same yeare he recaptured the Isle of Man for Edward. The sea
routes to Ireland were evidently under firm Scottish control. Robert Bruce
moved into Meath in February 1317 and threatened Dublin. He avoided a seige, but
wasted English estates throughout Kildare, Carlow, Kilkenny and Tipperary. Even
the churches of Kells and Cashel.
1316 John Balliol returned from Ireland and received a pension of 200 merks
from Edward II, and died in London about a yeare and a half afterwards.
1320
John of Lorn's son Alan had been an esquire at the English Court. He petitions
King Edward to provide him with some means of support until such time as the family
could recover their patrimony in Scotland. The family of John of Lorn, in so far
as their Scottish patrimony was concerned, was landless and broken men, and their
condition easily explains their appearance in Ireland as leaders in the mercenary
service. The MacDougalls were found mainly in the north of Ireland, and especially
under the Ó Neills of Tyrone, but
they were never as numerous as the MacSweenys and others. In Ireland the name
became MacDowell, Doyle, or Coyle.
1350c Angus
Mor, great grandson of Somerled surrendered his Scottish fief of Kintyre to
Hakon in 1263, but this offence was condoned
by Alexander III. He was allowed to retain his lands and, as a great baron of
Scotland, sat in the assembly of 1284. His eldest son Alexander, who had married
Juliana of Lorn, ultimately took the English side along with his wife's kinsmen
the MacDougalls; his younger son, Angus espoused the cause of Bruce, whom he sheltered
in his castle of Dunaverty in 1306, and in whose
division he and his followers fought at Bannockburn.
Bruce besieged Alexander in Castle Sween, and, after his surrender and capture,
confined him in Dundonald Castle where he died. He was disinherited, and his estates
passed to his younger brother. Alexander had six sons, and from one or more of
these the Macdonald Irish 'galloglass commanders were descended. They were the
most numerous and important of the mercenary leaders in Ireland, and were found
scattered over the whole country, in Ulster, Connaught, and Leinster.
The
remaining three families were descended from Somerled, the senior being that of
the MacDougalls of Lorn, who traced
their descent from his eldest son. King Robert I, in the case of the War of Independence
rewarded those who took the side of the struggle, forfeited the lands of who had
been his enemies, resulted then in extensive changes in land ownership and
in the extinction of several important families or of branches of them…. the course
of events… by the more important families in the struggle waged by Bruce.