Muircertach of the Leather Cloaks 919 - 943 After the death of Niall Glundubh in 919, Ulster became prey to invasion by the Vikings. Niall Glundubh's son, Muircertach, took revenge in setting up attacks from his base, Grianan of Aileach in County Dongeal, which still stands today and is a perfect example of round forts in Ireland. In 921 the Northmen raided Tír Conaill, plundered Armagh again, and entered Lough Foyle with thirty-two ships, causing people to flee the adjacent countryside. In 924 they returned to Strangford and placed a fleet on Lough Erne. Muircertach, son of Naill (i.e., Muircertach, "of the Leather cloaks"), King of Ailech, and the Hector of the West of the World, was killed by Gentiles, on a Sunday, the 4th of the kalends of March (i.e., by Blacair son of Gofraidh, King of the Dubh-Gail, at Glas-Liathain, by the side of Cluain-cain of Fera-Rois).
The Viking tide was turned by Muircertach, Niall Glundubh's son and successor. His base was the Grianan of Aileach near Derry, a circular dry-stone fort still in a good state of preservation; from here he set out with his army in mid-winter (hence his name Muircertach of the Leather Cloaks). In a vigorous campaigning career Muircertach won victories over the invaders at sea on Strangford Lough in 926, took and burned Dublin in 939, ravaged the Norse settlements in the Scottish Isles with an Ulster fleet in 941 and died in combat in 943. Complete Viking towers can still be seen at Devenish and Antrim in Ulster, and Glendalough in Leinster, with others in various states of decay at Drumbo, Nendrum, Clones, Armoy, Drumlane, Tory Island and many other places.
St. Malachy of Armagh, aged 29, would be appointed Bishop of Down and Connor in the North East. It is thought that Malachy visited the Savigniac community at Tulketh (before its removal to Furness) in 1126. In 1147 the order of Savigny was united with the house of Citeaux, and the community at Erenagh Abbey joined the Cistercian Order as a daughter house of Furness. In the Gaelic divisions which preceded the seventeenth century, most of Leitrim, along with Cavan, was part of the kingdom of Bréifne or East Breifne. At Owneybeg - Uaithney was the name of the Eoghanacht cantred here, controlled by the O'Maoilriain (O'Mulryan or O'Ryan) and St. Malachy who were cited as chiefs of 'Owney Mulryan' which included both Owneybeg, and Owney in Co. Tipperary. The Celtic-Latin Church and the seizure of the primacy of Armagh by laymen in the eleventh century has received great prominence owing to St. Bernard's denunciation of it in his life of St. Malachy, but the abuse was not without a parallel on the continent of Europe.
In Welsh Traditions it has been estimated that about nine-tenths of the Welsh population answer to a total of just one hundred names shared by 20 or 30 families. Welsh naming traditions make use of patronymics as opposed to fixed names. Patronymics are of , relating to, or derived from the name of one's father or a paternal ancestor. The Welsh patronymics system used the prefixes ab or ap (meaning son of) such as ap Rhys (for son of Rhys) or ab Owen (for son of Owen). This lead to many a Welsh surname beginning with the letters B and P. The letter A was dropped from ap and ab.
A name sometimes given to that dialect of the Celtic which is spoken in the Highlands of Scotland called, by the Highlanders, Gaelic. Celtic surnames and their derivatives are detailed under the sections Scottish, Welsh and Irish surnames. The P-Q Celtic languages is most easily seen in the word for son, mac in Q (hard K sound) and map in P languages. The remains of the old Celtic language are found in Old Irish, Ogham- Gaelic, the Erse or Irish, the Manx, and the Welsh and its cognate dialects Cornish and Bas Breton. Erse is a modification of Irish, OE. Irishe.] A name sometimes given to that dialect of the Celtic which is spoken in the Highlands of Scotland called, by the Highlanders, Gaelic and Shetlandic.
The combat with the Hugos, is mentioned also in the sagas, as well as by most of the English annalists who narrated the events of these times. The Saga, however, as usual, describes only the fight, without mentioning the motives, which caused it. These we learn chiefly from Caradoc of Lhancarvan and Ordericus Vitalis. There raged at this time a fierce war between the Welsh and the Norman earls of the Marches, the principal of whom was Hugh, Earl of Chester, called grossus, because of his extreme fatness. At this time most of Gwynedd had been overrun by the Normans, and following the killing of Robert of Rhuddlan had been taken over by Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester. The Irish annals, especially those of the Four Masters; where it is expressly stated that Muircertach gave his daughter to "Sichraid," son of Magnus, with many precious gifts. Caradoc says expressly that Magnus built three castles in the Isle of Man, had his son married with the daughter of Muircertach, and named him King of Man. The name of the princess has been preserved in the Saga only, it was Biadmynja or Biadhmuin.
In the beginning of A.D. 1098, Hugh, together with his namesake, Hugh of Montgomery, Earl of Salop, aided by a traitor among the Welsh themselves, attacked North-Wales with a large army, and penetrated without any obstacle as far as into Anglesey; the Welsh king Griffith, and his relation Cadogon, being unable to make any resistance, proceeded to Ireland to apply for assistance against the invaders. Gruffydd ap Cynan had not been king very long when he was enticed to a meeting with Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester and Hugh of Montgomery, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury at Rug, near Corwen. It would appear, although it is not expressly stated anywhere, that Griffith on his way visited Man, and solicited King Magnus, whose arrival in these parts with a powerful fleet must have been generally known, to help him: or that Magnus, hearing of the doings at Anglesey, resolved to go there on his own accord, and endeavour to gain something for himself. According to Orderic he came with only six ships, and entered the Menai Straits, carrying a red shield on the mast, the usual sign of peace and commercial intercourse. The Norman warriors, however, would not permit him to land, and assembled in great number under the command of both Hughs; there ensued in consequence vehement fighting, or rather exchange of missiles, the Normans being on shore, the Norwegians on board their ships. Hugh of Salop was killed by an arrow, and finally the Normans were put to flight.
According to the Saga it was the king himself who shot Earl Hugh, or who at least got the credit of having done so; his ship, it is told, being nearest to the shore, he stood on the forecastle shooting arrows from a long bow at the enemy, and seeing Earl Hugh advancing, he persuaded a man from Halogaland (the northernmost part of Norway), who was standing close by, likewise shooting, that they should both at once aim at the earl; this done, one of the arrows struck the " nef-björg" (the piece of iron protecting the nose), and caused it to bend sidewards; the other entered the eye and came out behind, killing the earl immediately : it was, however, impossible to say which of the two arrows was shot by the king, yet the man, to flatter the king, gave him the honour of having shot the fatal one.
When Hugh of Salop, he says, together with the Earl of Chester, had entered by force the church of St. Tefredauc in Anglesey, and left some dogs there, these were found mad in the morning; and a month afterwards he came himself to an untimely end, as there arrived some pirates with ships of war from Orkney, whom he gallantly went to meet into the very sea, bestriding a noble steed; the commander of the enemy's force, however, named Magnus, standing with his bow forward in his ship, let fly an arrow, which, although the earl was clad in iron armour from head to foot, entered his right eye, and went through the brains, so that he fell dying into the water; when the victor saw him falling, he is said to have exclaimed triumphantly in the Danish tongue leit loupe, i.e., "let leap," and from this time the English lost their dominion in Anglesey. After the Roman edict, the Druids of Anglesey fled to, and found refuge in, the Isle of Man. Prior to the Cambrian dynasty, a mythological character of the Ulster Cycle called Mannanan Beg Mac Y Leir, is said to have governed the Isle of Man, and to have been its first legislator or ruler.
According to Ordericus, King Magnus, having ascertained that it was the earl himself whom he had killed, expressed his regret, and offered Earl Hugh of Chester peace and security, saying that he had come to conquer Ireland, not England, nor other foreign lands, and only to maintain his authority in islands already belonging to his dominions. Here, however, Ordericus must be mistaken, as it is certain that he appropriated to himself the dominion of Anglesey, and that this island was for many years reckoned among the Norwegian possessions in the west . Even William of Malmesbury asserts that Mag nus "fiercely assaulted England in attacking Anglesey. Nor is it improbable that the Welsh of Anglesey, who reaped the sole fruit of the battle which cost Magnus dearly, gratified him with a show of homage, by which they did not mean to bind themselves very strictly, and which could not in any case have been so burthensome to them as the English yoke. It is told by Caradoc, that Magnus, on his last expedition to the West, in 1102-3, was kindly received in Anglesey, and got the permission of Griffith to cut as much timber there as he wanted. Perhaps this was construed by the Norwegians as a sign of submission on the part of Griffith and his Welshmen.
It was undoubtedly the intention of Magnus at this time to punish Muircertach, but he was prevented from doing so, either by his severe loss in the battle of Anglesey, or, as is probable, by the necessity in which he may have found himself to turn his forces against Scotland. As at this time, it would seem, Eadgar, the son of Malcolm, had cap-tured his rival Donald Bane, and as Donald was the ancient ally of Magnus, it was but natural that the latter should intervene on his behalf, and attempt to effect his delivery. It is even far from improbable that Eadgar, not acknowledging the right of Magnus to the Isles, had expressed his intention to reunite them with the Crown of Scotland; and that Magnus, hearing of this, deemed it necessary to threaten him with an attack.
The Saga tells that the King of the Scots sent a message to Magnus, asking him to abstain from hostilities against Scotland, and offering him the cession of all those Western Islands between which and the mainland the Norwegian king could go in a vessel with a paddle rudder, on which condition peace really was concluded.8 This evidently infers that Magnus had threatened Eadgar with war, and as the thing in itself is very probable, there is all reason to believe the whole transaction to be strictly true. Magnus may have ascertained that Donald Bane, now being blind and degraded, was past hope of ever recovering the power, and therefore found the best thing he could do, was to make peace with Eadgar on good conditions. It is even most likely that it was agreed to strengthen the treaty by a marriage between Magnus and Mathilda, the sister of Eadgar.
Matilda was descended from Agatha, daughter, or perhaps only a relative, of the Emperor of Germany, wbo had married Edward, a son of Edmund Ironside. Margaret, one of their daughters, had married Malcolm, King of Scotland, and Matilda was one of the children born of that marriage: she was grand-daughter to Agatha. In her childhood she had worn the veil in the convent of Winton, over which her aunt Christina was abbess, in order to preserve her chastity against the brutality of the Norman soldiers : but in a synod of prelates, November 11, 1100, she was pronounced free to marry, and was accordingly married to Henry I. of England, by Archbishop Auselm.
The Saga moreover is mistaken in calling the Scottish king Malcolm, instead of Eadgar, no doubt misled by the Scottish denomination " Etgar Mac Malcolm." It is certain the marriage was never effected, Mathilda having been given to King Henry of England in 1100; this, however, explains itself readily from the superi-ority of King Henry in those parts, and even the substance of the verses themselves indicate the misgivings of the royal author that the union so much coveted was not to be after all. Certain it is, that from this time the Norwegian kings dated their real possession of the Sudreys, among which they also counted the peninsula of Cantire; because Magnus, imitating the old fabulous sea-king Beite, of whom a similar story is told, had his vessel drawn across the narrow isthmus of Tarbet, while he himself sat at the helm.
It is said in the Saga that during this expedition King Magnus effected a marriage between his son Sigurd, then only nine years of age, with Biadmuin, daughter of Muircertach, being only five years old, and that he constituted him king of all Norwegian possessions in the West. That the marriage did not take place till in 1102, on the king's third expedition, is evident from the Irish and Welsh annals, as will be seen by-and-by; and it is most likely, nay, almost certain, that the Saga has likewise misplaced the other event, the proper moment for conferring on the prince the title of king being surely the day of his marriage, especially as Sigurd had then just completed his twelfth year, which was the very term for coming of age among the Norwegians in those times. Between Muircertach and Magnus there was apparently no contact at all during this expedition, whatever might have been the cause. That Magnus intended to make war upon him, must be regarded as certain; but no doubt, as we have already seen, partly the preparations of Muircertach himself, and partly the expeditions of Magnus against Wales and Scotland, averted the blow from Ireland in 1098. He passed, however, the winter either at Man, or in the Isles, probably intending to attack Ireland in the spring of 1099; but it is expressly stated in the Saga that many of his men, wearied by being absent from their home for such a length of time, left him without leave before the winter set in.
We might guess, therefore, that when spring returned he did not feel himself strong enough to invade Ireland with the certainty of effecting anything worth the exertion. Moreover, as soon after his return to Norway we find him engaged in a war with Sweden, it may be that the news received from those parts induced him to shorten his stay in the West and to forego for the moment his plans against Ireland, postponing them till better times. This indeed appears to us the simplest way of explaining the matter. Certain it seems, that King Magnus, on his return to Norway in the summer 1099, left his son Sigurd at Orkney.