The Kings of Alba

1. The Kings of Alba Scotland’s First Kingdom

2. The Kings of Alba • Kenneth Mac Alpin ( -858) • His descendants after 900AD: power-sharing of the descendants. • The kingship was explicitly Gaelic. • End of the family’s monopoly in 1034. Mael Coluim (Malcolm) mac Cineada (1005-34).

3. The Kings of Alba • New breed of kings. • Duncan I (killed by Macbeth in battle r. 1040-1057). (Both descended from Kenneth M Alpin through their mothers). • MacDuff (the last descendant of Kenneth to rule).

4. The Kings of Alba • They did not rule the whole of Scotland. • The west and SW were infrequently under their rule. • The earlier Celtic royal residences on hilltops gave way to large churches or a string of local courts across the country.

5. Malcolm III Mael Coluim mac Donchada (1057-93)

6. Malcolm and David

7. Malcolm III and Margaret

8. The Canmore Dynasty (the ten kings) • After Macbeth’s reign came Malcolm III who probably used Edinburgh Castle as one of his strongholds. • (11th century). • It was during this dynasty after David I that the Celtic method of appointing a new king gave way to the now familiar method of ‘primogeniture’ (first-born).

9. The Canmore Dynasty • Many changes came to Scotland during this dynasty strongly influenced by the Anglo-Norman system of rule (landholding and allegiance, Normans in Britain after 1066). • Growth of the Roman church, supplanting of the Celtic-style monasteries. • Centralization of administration.

10. The Canmore Dynasty (12th-13th century) • Taxation and trading on the basis of the ‘burgh’ system. • Especially in the 13th century the influence of England on the Scottish state. Uncertainity about the status of the Scottish monarchy.

11. The Canmore Dynasty • Many Scottish nobles owned land in both Scotland and England which meant that legally they owed allegiance both to the Scottish and English crowns.

12. David I (1124-53) • David I- his reign led to the dynamic Scottish monarchy of the 12-13 centuries. • During his time • : rapid reform of church • Economic development driven by burgess colonists

13. David I

14. David I • Son of Mael Coluim mac Donnchada. • He received a Norman-style education in England. • He ruled initially as ‘prince of the Cumbrian region’. • He introduced English and Continental techniques of government. • King of Scotland 1124.

15. David I • South of the Forth after 1124 feudal lordships for friends and dependants. • Reform of the church, brought in European monastic orders :Austinians and the Cistercians. • New elite of government. • He was opposed by the Gaelic nobility.

16. David I • String of royal castles and burghs from Aberdeen to Inverness. • 1136 unprecedented degree of power. Stability of his kingdom. • Tried to integrate parts of northern England into his kingdom (Northumbria). • First native coinage.

17. Language during the time of David I • It is during the time of David and his predecessor that Gaelic reaches its status as the language of most of Scotland (excluding the northern islands of Shetland and Orkney).

18. Spread of Gaelic • The spread of Gaelic culture eastwards • The use of Gaelic by the Columban Church (Iona) and their missonaries. • The use of Gaelic in the courts of the first Scottish kings in eastern Scotland (Pictland) (from c850- ).

19. languages • After c500AD various forms of Germanic/English arrived in Scotland and developed. • Dumfriesshire, Galloway. • It was the towns that eventually promoted English. The ‘burghs’. • Under David I’s rule, we see the promotion of English language and custom in the Lowlands.

20. Wars of Independence 1286-c1353

21. Wars of Independence • The attempted subjugation of Scotland by its neighbour to the south. • Amicable relationship between the two for much of the 13th century. • But Edward I intervened at the death of Alexander III. • Edward’s son and Margaret, Alexander’s grand-daughter.

22. Wars of Independence • William Wallace, battle of Falkirk, 1298, his death 1305 • Robert Bruce- new king (having killed John Comyn). Descendant of David I • Edward I (dies 1307) • Battle of Bannockburn 1314 (Bruce accepted as king) • Robert Bruce’s reign 1306-29

23. Robert Bruce and Isabella of Mar

24. Wars of Independence • The recognition of Scotland’s independence.

25. The Lordship of the Isles http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/articles/lords_of_the_isles/

27. Lordship of the Isles

28. Power-Lordship of the Isles • When the centre of Gaelic power moved from Dal Riata in the west to Pictland in the 9th century, a new political entity took shape in the west. • By then there was an important Scandinavian presence there. • The first so-called ‘king of the Isles’ (Ri Innse Gall or Triath nan Eilean) was Godfrey son of Harald (d.989).

29. Power-Lordship of the Isles • In the ensuing century there was competition for the lordship from Norway, Scotland, earls of Orkney, kings of Dublin, and some Irish local kings. • Authority was divided between Scotland and Norway. • Finally, in 1266, Norway ceded their part to Scotland (treaty of Perth).

30. Power-Lordship of the Isles • During the Wars of Independence, the MacDoughalls oppossed Robert the Bruce. • By the 14th century, the Isles had become the centre of Gaelic culture in Scotland with close links with Ireland. • The Council of the Isles (justice and administration). Control of the seaways.

31. Power-Lordship of the Isles • The Lords of the Isles (Righ Inse Gall) and the chiefs encouraged their younger men to become mercenaries. They were known as Gall-Oglaigh (Gallowglasses), and fought for the waring Irish kings of the period. They were described: • These sort of men be those that do not lightly abandon the field, but bide the brunt to the death.

32. Power-Lordship of the Isles • The Gallowglasses became much sought-after in Europe, and were greatly feared. • Many were given lands in Ireland. MacDonalds, MacDonnells, MacSweens. • A warrior society.

33. Gallowglasses

34. Power-Lordship of the Isles • By the 15th century, there was greater and greater conflict with the Crown of Scotland. • By the beginning of the following century, the break-up of the Lordship. • The power-vacuum is largely taken up by the various powerful clans.

35. The end of the Lordship of the Isles • An attempt in 1462 by the Lord of the isles (John of Islay) to topple the ‘king’ of Scotland James III (Stewart family) with the help of the English king (Edward IV) failed, and John lost his lands, and within three generations, the old Lordship had crumbled. • This led the whole west of Scotland to become a patchwork of clan territories.

36. After the Lordship of the Isles • One important achievement of the old principality was the ‘Great Music’ (An Ceol Mor). I.e. the pipers. • The canon of the pipers went to 300 pieces. • The piping college of the MacCrimmonds was in existence well before the first reference in 1580.

37. The Scottish Clans From the beginnings to Culloden..

38. The Clans • The clan was the most obvious manifestation of the centrality of kinship to the organisation of society in Gaelic Scotland. • This was a key legacy of the medieval Scottish kingdom from its Gaelic prototype.

39. The word clann • The word mainly used before clan was cenel, other words were cinneadh, siol and sliochd. • Clan was used from c11th century. • Surnames began at the very highest levels as a means of identifying members of a ruling lineage..

41. The origins of the Clans • Clan is from clann, the Gaelic word for children. Clansmen and women saw themselves as descended from common name-fathers, often distant ancestors who in some meaningful sense were the first of that name. • So, Clan Donald (Clann Domhnaill) were originally the children of Donald.

43. The origins of the Clans • The Clan Campbell , the most powerful grouping in the SW of Scotland insisted they were descended from the Irish mythic hero Diarmaid the Boar. • (In fact, the Campbells more likely descended from the Old Brittonic speaking peoples of the SW of Scotland, related to the Britons in the south.)

44. The origins of the Clans • Even before the fall of the Lordship of the Isles, the extreme rivalry between the clans was coming to a head. • A famous event was the ‘battle of the clans’ in 1396. This event between the Clan Cameron and Clan Chattan was fought without protective armour between thirty men on either side.

45. The origins of the Clans • The lawlessness of some of the clans can be seen in the person of the ‘Wolf of Badenoch’. In 1390, he burned down the town and cathedral of Moray because the bishop had criticized him. • He belonged to the family of the Stewarts. • His family had been one of the Anglo-Normans who settled in Scotland.

46. The Time of the Forays (Plunder)-the clans and the time of the Stewarts The period between the break-up of the Lordship of the Isles and the Jacobite rebellions (1715, 1745) is often called in Gaelic Linn na Creach (the Time of Plunder).

47. Linn na Creach • Yet, the Lowlands and the king of Scotland were not oblivious to such untamed behaviour. • The Stewarts had now long occupied the throne of Scotland, beginning in the 1400s. • The first Stewart to be king of both Scotland and England-James VI (James I of England) needed he could control the whole of his Scottish kingdom if he were to be taken seriously.

48. James VI (1566-1625) • Attempts were made to found towns in the Gaelic areas of the west of Scotland. • During the same period the Statutes of Iona were introduced to try and eradicate the Gaelic culture and the society which had built it. • The clan bards were made illegal. The sons of the chiefs were to receive an English education.

49. Education Act 1616 • The Gaelic language was blamed as one of the chief and principal causes of the continuance of barbarity and incivility amongst the Isles and Highlands. It was to be abolished and removed. • One clan the MacGregors were deprived of their name. The chief Alasdair MacGregor was executed for refusing to change his name. The power of names in clan culture.

50. Rob Roy MacGregor • He became a leader in what was to be one of the first Jacobite rebellions (1689). This was in protest at the expulsion of James II and the enthronment of William of Orange. • The battle of Killiecrankie. • Rob Roy was finally obliged to take another name, and he chose Campbell.