Battle of Renfrew
Herbert, Bishop of Glasgow, Baldwin, Sheriff of Lanark/Clydesdale, and Walter fitz Alan, Steward of Scotland are all possible candidates for this position.
Somerled first appears on record in the 1150s, when he is stated to have supported the cause of Máel Coluim mac Alasdair in a rebellion against Malcolm IV, King of Scotland.
Somerled may have also invaded the region in an attempt to counter a perceived threat that the Scots posed to his authority in the Firth of Clyde.
At an uncertain point in the mid twelfth century, perhaps in about 1140, Somairle mac Gilla Brigte married Ragnhildr, daughter of Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles.
[1] This union had severe repercussions on the later history of the Kingdom of the Isles, as it gave Somairle's descendants—Clann Somairle—a claim to the kingship by way of Ragnhildr's royal descent.
Not only did David I, King of Scotland die late in May,[3] but the thirteenth- to fourteenth-century Chronicle of Mann reports that Óláfr was assassinated in June, whilst his son, Guðrøðr, was absent in Norway.
According to the chronicle, he journeyed from Norway to Orkney, enstrengthened by Norwegian military support, and was unanimously acclaimed as king by the leading Islesmen.
[54] The account given by Carmen de Morte Sumerledi certainly suggests that Somairle was killed in the outset—"wounded by spear, slain by the sword"—and overcome by a hastily organised body of local defenders.
[56][note 5] The account given by Carmen de Morte Sumerledi further states that Somairle's head was cut off by a priest, and presented to Herbert, Bishop of Glasgow.
[74] Whilst there is reason to suspect that Somairle focused his offensive upon Walter's lordship at Renfrew,[75] it is also possible that Herbert, as Malcolm's agent in the west, was the intended target.
[76] Certainly, Carmen de Morte Sumerledi associates Herbert with the victory,[77] and makes no mention of Walter or any Scottish royal forces.
Specifically, one royal charter, dating to 1141×1147, reveals that David granted a portion of his cáin from Argyll and Kintyre to Holyrood Abbey.
[86] The fact that this charter includes the caveat "in whatever year I should receive it" could indicate that, between 1141 and 1152, the Scottish Crown lost royal control of these territories to Somairle.
[88] Somairle's first attestation by a contemporary source occurs in 1153,[89] when the Chronicle of Holyrood reports that he backed the cause of his nepotes, the Meic Máel Coluim, in an unsuccessful coup after David's death.
[90] These nepotes—possibly nephews or grandsons of Somairle—were the sons of Máel Coluim mac Alasdair, a claimant to the Scottish throne, descended from an elder brother of David, Alexander I, King of Scotland.
[91][note 8] There is reason to suspect that some of the campaigning conducted by Somairle and the Meic Máel Coluim is also evinced by Carmen de Morte Sumerledi, which refers to his wasting of Glasgow, its cathedral, and surrounding countryside.
[102][note 10] Nevertheless, four years later Somairle launched his final invasion of Scotland, and it is possible that it was conducted in the context of another attempt to support Máel Coluim's claim to the Scottish throne.
[117] Historically, this region appears to have once formed part of the territory dominated by the Gall Gaidheil,[118] a people of mixed Scandinavian and Gaelic ethnicity.
[119] One possibility is that these lands had formerly comprised part of a Gall Gaidheil realm before the Scottish Crown overcame Máel Coluim and his supporters.
[116] The Cadzow charter is one of several that mark the earliest record of Fergus, Lord of Galloway,[120] a Scandinavian-Gaelic magnate who held lands in Carrick.
[134] As such, the mid-part of the twelfth century saw a steady consolidation of Scottish power along the western seaboard by some of the realm's greatest magnates—men who could well have encroached into Somairle's sphere of influence.
[138][note 15] Somairle's final campaign appears similar to later Norwegian-backed invasions of the Firth of Clyde conducted by his descendants in the thirteenth century (1230 and 1263).
[148] The fact that the Annals of Ulster accords Malcolm the epithet "Cennmor" ("Big Head") upon his death could be evidence that he suffered from Paget's disease.
[170] In 1772, Thomas Pennant visited this site, and observed "a mount or tumulus, with a foss round the base, and a single stone on the top", which he was led to believe marked the spot where Somairle was defeated.
