[33][note 4] Walter is increasingly attested by royal charters from about 1150,[36] and it is possible that it was at about this time that David granted him the stewardship to be held heritably.

[46] In fact, his elder brother, Jordan, inherited this stewardship from their father,[47] and held this office at the time of Walter's own establishment in Scotland.

[40] Walter lived during a period in history when Scottish monarchs sought to attract men to their kingdom by promising them gifts of land.

[51][note 6] As a result of their tenure in high office, and their dominating regional influence, these provincial lords were equal to the native Scottish earls in all but rank.

[58] The grant of lodgings in every important royal settlement would have only been entrusted to people particularly close to the king, and to those who were expected to travel with him.

[59] The impressive list of twenty-nine eminent men who attested this transaction appears to be evidence that the proceedings took place in a public setting before the royal court.

[96] The presence of Scots in this multi-ethnic fighting force is specifically attested by the twelfth-century texts De expugnatione Lyxbonensi and Gesta Friderici imperatoris.

[105][note 14] The uneven distribution of Walter's grants to Paisley Priory seems to have been a result of the fact that he had subinfeudated most of Strathgryfe by the time of its establishment.

[107] Walter's extensive territories consisted of regions inhabited by native speakers of English, Cumbric and Gaelic.

[111] Alternately, the early concentration of Walter's fiefs in the area may reflect a policy of defending what was a vulnerable coastline and doorway to Scotland.

[122] The various forms of Eschina's locative surname de Molle could indicate that she was a maternal granddaughter and heir of a previous Lord of Mow: a certain Uhtred, son of Liulf.

[132] A daughter of Walter may have been Christina, a widow of William de Brus, Lord of Annandale, and second wife of Patrick I, Earl of Dunbar.

[140] Specifically, according to the thirteenth-century Gesta Annalia I, once the Scots subdued the Gallovidians, the conquerors forced Fergus to retire to Holyrood Abbey, and hand over his son, Uhtred, as a royal hostage.

[141] On one hand, Fergus himself may have precipitated Malcolm's Gallovian campaign, by raiding the territory between the rivers Urr and Nith.

[142] The fact that the Chronicle of Holyrood describes Malcolm's Gallovidian opponents as "federate enemies", and makes no mention of his sons, suggests that Fergus was supported by other accomplices.

[143] In fact, Malcolm may have encountered an alliance between Fergus and Somairle mac Gilla Brigte, King of the Isles.

[158] The various depictions of Somairle's forces—stated to have been drawn from Argyll, Dublin and the Isles—appear to reflect the remarkable reach of power that this man possessed at his peak.

[164] It is conceivable that the commander was one of the three principal men of the region: Herbert, Bishop of Glasgow,[165] Baldwin, Sheriff of Lanark/Clydesdale,[166] and Walter himself.

[167] Whilst there is reason to suspect that Somairle focused his offensive upon Walter's lordship at Renfrew,[168] it is also possible that Hebert, as Malcolm's agent in the west, was the intended target.

[169] Certainly, Carmen de Morte Sumerledi associates Herbert with the victory,[170] and makes no mention of Walter or any Scottish royal forces.

[176] Somairle's first attestation by a contemporary source occurs in 1153,[177] 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.

[178] 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.

[179] 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.

[184] Historically, this region appears to have once formed part of the territory dominated by the Gall Gaidheil,[185] a people of mixed Scandinavian and Gaelic ethnicity.

[186] 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.

[193] A catalyst of this collision of competing spheres of influence may have been the vacuum left by the assassination of Somairle's father-in-law, Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles, in 1153.

[201] 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.

[202][note 23] The remarkably poor health of Malcolm—a man who went on to die before reaching the age of twenty-five—combined with the rising power of Somairle along Scotland's western seaboard, could account for Malcolm's confirmation Walter's stewardship and lands in 1161×1162.

Somairle may have intended to seize upon Malcolm's poor health to strike out at the Scots and limit the western spread of their influence.

[215] Specifically, his like-named great-grandson, Walter Stewart, Earl of Menteith, is the first such descendant known to have adopted senescallus as a surname without having possessed the office of steward.