page_title: Máel Coluim, son of the king of the Cumbrians
section_title: Disintegration of the Cumbrian realm
hierarchical_section_title: Máel Coluim, son of the king of the Cumbrians / Disintegration of the Cumbrian realm
caption_attribution_description: English: An excerpt from folio 46v of British Library Harley MS 526 (Vita Ædwardi Regis) showing the name of Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria (died&#160;1073×1075).
context_page_description: Máel Coluim was an eleventh-century magnate who seems to have been established as either King of Alba or King of Strathclyde. In 1055, Siward, Earl of Northumbria defeated Mac Bethad mac Findlaích, the reigning ruler of the Kingdom of Alba. As a result of this military success against the Scots, several sources assert that Siward established Máel Coluim as king. It is uncertain whether this concerned the kingship of Alba or the kingship of Strathclyde.
  The fact that Máel Coluim is described as the son of a "King of the Cumbrians" suggests that he was a member of the Cumbrian royal dynasty of Strathclyde, and could indicate that he was a close relative of Owain Foel, King of Strathclyde, the last known King of Strathclyde. Máel Coluim's Gaelic personal name could indicate that he was maternally descended from the royal Alpínid dynasty of Alba, which would have in turn endowed him with a claim to the Scottish throne.
  Máel Coluim's fate is unknown. The fact that Siward died in 1055, and Mac Bethad retained authority in Alba, suggests that Máel Coluim was quickly overcome.
context_section_description: It is uncertain if the Kingdom of Strathclyde even existed by the time of the events of 1054. There is evidence to suggest that Siward and the Northumbrians exerted a significant amount of influence over the Cumbrian realm by the mid eleventh century. For example, the twelfth-century Historia ecclesiae Eboracensis records that two Bishops of Glasgow—a certain Johannes and Magsuen, whose names could be evidence that they were Cumbrians—were consecrated by Cynesige, Archbishop of York. Although it is uncertain if Glasgow was indeed a diocesan seat in the eleventh century, the fact that an eleventh-century stone cross, decorated in the Northumbrian style, has been recovered from the site of the Glasgow Cathedral, suggests that this site was increasing in importance before the construction of the cathedral in the twelfth century. This cross may, therefore, corroborate the consecrational claims of Historia ecclesiae Eboracensis, which could in turn indicate that Siward and (the senior Northumbrian cleric) Cynesige were indeed exerting influence over the Cumbrians. Another piece of evidence for Northumbrian expansion is a particular eleventh-century charter detailing the grant of certain rights and lands from a certain Gospatric to several individuals. According to this contract, the grantees received various lands in what came to form the English county of Cumberland, and they also gained a guarantee of protection from Gospatric and Siward. The likelihood that Siward would have only granted territories within his own sphere of influence, coupled with the fact that the charter specifically states that the granted lands were "once Cumbrian", suggests that most (if not all) of the Cumbrian territories south of the Solway Firth had been gained by Siward sometimes before his death in 1055.
  It may have been in the course of Siward's campaign against the Scots that the English gained control of the Solway Plain. Pressure from external forces north of the Solway Firth—such as the contemporaneous expansion of the Gall Gaidheil—could have meant that the Cumbrian leadership allowed the southerly territories fall under Siward's authority. Whilst these lands indeed seem to have fallen under English authority in the eleventh century, the more northerly Cumbrian territories appear to have been conquered by the Scots. In 1070, for example, Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria is recorded to have led an invasion into Scottish-controlled territory in an effort to counter certain devastating Scottish raids into England. According to Historia regum Anglorum, Gospatric directed his counter-strike into Cumbreland, the former lands of the Cumbrian realm. In fact, this source alleges that Máel Coluim mac Donnchada's royal authority in these lands was unlawful since the Scots had only seized the lands "through violent subjugation".
  Whilst the record of bishops Johannes and Magsuen seems to reveal that the Cumbrians were independent of the Scots during Cynesige's episcopacy (1055–1060)—albeit possibly under Northumbrian domination—the evidence from Historia regum Anglorum reveals that the northernmost portion of the Cumbrian realm had fallen to the Scots by the time of Gospatric's invasion. Although the events noted by Historia regum Anglorum are corroborated by the twelfth century Historia post Bedam, the Scottish conquest is unrecorded. Nevertheless, the takeover seems to have occurred at some point between Máel Coluim mac Donnchada's accession in 1058 and Gospatric's invasion of 1070. One possibility is that the Scots overthrew the father of the Cumbrian Máel Coluim. Another is that Máel Coluim and his dynasty were overcome in the power vacuum left by Siward's demise in 1055. The fact that Historia regum Anglorum questions the legitimacy of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada's possession of Cumbreland could reveal that the compiler of this source regarded the region as rightfully Northumbrian. In any case, Máel Coluim appears to be the last known member of the Cumbrian dynasty.
caption: The name of Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria as it appears on folio 46v of British Library Harley 526 (Vita Ædwardi Regis).[70]
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