page_title: Owain ap Dyfnwal (fl. 934)
section_title: Æthelflæd's tripartite northern alliance
hierarchical_section_title: Owain ap Dyfnwal (fl. 934) / Æthelflæd's tripartite northern alliance
caption_attribution_description: English: An excerpt from folio 29r of Oxford Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson B 489 (the Annals of Ulster). The excerpt concerns Sitriuc Cáech. }
context_page_description: Owain ap Dyfnwal (fl. 934) was an early tenth-century King of Strathclyde. He was probably a son of Dyfnwal, King of Strathclyde, who may have been related to previous rulers of the Kingdom of Strathclyde. Originally centred in the valley of the River Clyde, this realm appears to have undergone considerable southward expansion in the ninth or tenth century, after which it increasing came to be known as the Kingdom of Cumbria.
  Owain may have represented the Cumbrians in the tripartite alliance with the kingdoms of Alba and Mercia, assembled by Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians in the second decade of the tenth century. Around this time, the Cumbrians are recorded to have campaigned against either Ragnall ua Ímair or Sitric Cáech. Owain may also be the king of Strathclyde who is recorded to have submitted to Æthelflæd's brother, Edward, King of the Anglo-Saxons, in 920 with Ragnall and Custantín mac Áeda, King of Alba. Moreover, Owain seems to have been present at another assembly in 927, when he, Custantín, Ealdred, and perhaps Owain ap Hywel, King of Gwent, acknowledged overlordship of Edward's son and successor, Æthelstan.
context_section_description: If the eleventh-century Fragmentary Annals of Ireland is to be believed, at some point between 911 and 918, Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians orchestrated an alliance of Mercians, Scots, and Cumbrians, to combat the increasing menace of insular Scandinavians. The compact stipulated that, in the event that one of these three peoples were attacked, the others would come to their aid. The Cumbrians and Scots are further stated to have succeeded in destroying several Scandinavian settlements. If this record is indeed accurate, one possibility is that, whilst the Scots focused upon Argyll and the Hebrides, the Cumbrians could have concentrated their efforts against the Scandinavian colonies in the Solway Firth. Although the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland states that a Scandinavian king "sacked Strathclyde and plundered the land", this attack is also said to have been "ineffectual". The unnamed attacking monarch may have been Ragnall ua Ímair, who likely controlled territory in western Northumbria at about this time. Another candidate is Sitriuc Cáech, an Uí Ímair kinsman of Ragnall, who is stated by the same source to have seized the kingship of Dublin before the attack. The leader of the Scots at that time was Custantín mac Áeda, King of Alba. The record of Dyfnwal's death before 915, and the evidence of Owain ruling the Kingdom of Strathclyde in the later decades, suggests that he succeeded Dyfnwal as king, and represented the realm in the alliance. The Cumbrians are not recorded to have received any assistance from Æthelflæd; this could indicate that they were attacked after her death in 918.
  In the year of Æthelflæd's death, Ragnall and the Scots fought the bloody but inconclusive Battle of Corbridge, a clash attested by sources such as the fifteenth- to sixteenth-century Annals of Ulster, the ninth- to twelfth-century Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, and the tenth- or eleventh-century Historia de sancto Cuthberto. The conflict appears to have been associated with Custantín's attempt to reinsert the exiled Northumbrian magnate Ealdred, son of Eadwulf, into western Northumbria. Although the presence of Cumbrians in the campaign is not specifically recorded, it is possible that they too participated in the operations against the insular Scandinavians. In any event, Ragnall's ability to weather the attack seems to have led to his consolidation of authority in western Northumbria.
caption: The name of Sitriuc Cáech as it appears on folio 29r of Oxford Bodleian Library Rawlinson B 489 (the Annals of Ulster).[45]
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