page_title: Suibne mac Cináeda
section_title: Context
hierarchical_section_title: Suibne mac Cináeda / Context
caption_attribution_description: English: An excerpt from folio 17r of Oxford Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson B 488 (the Annals of Tigernach). The excerpt concerns Echmarcach mac Ragnaill (died 1064/1065).
context_page_description: Suibne mac Cináeda was an eleventh-century ruler of the Gall Gaidheil, a population of mixed Scandinavian and Gaelic ethnicity. There is little known of Suibne as he is only attested in three sources that record the year of his death. He seems to have ruled in a region where Gall Gaidheil are known to have dwelt: either the Hebrides, the Firth of Clyde region, or somewhere along the south-western coast of Scotland from the Firth of Clyde southwards into Galloway.
  Suibne's patronym, meaning "son of Cináed", may indicate that he was a member of the royal Alpínid dynasty. For instance, the patronym could be evidence that he was a brother of the reigning Máel Coluim mac Cináeda, King of Alba, or else a son of Cináed mac Duib, King of Alba. Suibne's career appears to have coincided with an expansion of the Gall Gaidheil along the south-west coast of what is today Scotland. This extension of power may have partially contributed to the destruction of the Kingdom of Strathclyde, an embattled realm which then faced aggressions from Dublin Vikings, Northumbrians, and Scots.
context_section_description: If Suibne nevertheless ruled in Galloway, the notices of his death could be the first known instances of the term Gall Gaidheil in associated with the region. It would also mean that he was a precursor to the similarly-styled Gallovidian rulers. A more-contemporary figure, Echmarcach mac Ragnaill, King of Dublin and the Isles, may well have ruled in Galloway as well, if the style "rex Innarenn", accorded to him by Marianus Scottus, means "King of the Rhinns", as opposed to the possible "King of the Isles". In about 1031, Echmarcach was one of several northern kings who convened with, and possibly submitted to, Knútr Sveinnsson, ruler of the Anglo-Scandinavian Empire comprising the kingdoms of Denmark, England, and Norway. If Suibne and Echmarcach were indeed associated with Galloway, Echmarcach's dealings with the English king—only a few years before the Suibne's death—could suggest that Echmarcach and Suibne were rivals within the region. 
  The original mainland territory of the Gall Gaidheil appears to have been much more expansive than Galloway. The ninth-century Félire Óengusso Céli Dé and the ninth-century Martyrology of Tallaght reveal that Bute, an island of the Firth of Clyde, was encompassed within the territory of the Gall Gaidheil. This evidence could indicate that the original territory of the Gall Gaidheil lay within the Firth of Clyde region and nearby Cowal. In the mediaeval period, the Rhinns appears have also included what is today known as the Machars. The entire region would have thus stretched from the North Channel to Wigtown Bay, and would have likely encompassed an area similar to the modern boundaries of Wigtownshire. The evidence of Echmarcach's authority in the Rhinns may reveal that much of what came to be known as Galloway was originally separate from the Gall Gaidheil territory. This could mean that the Rhinns was not part of the Gall Gaidheil territory during Suibne's floruit, and only came to be incorporated into these lands at a later date, perhaps the twelfth century.
  Another figure who may have held power in Galloway at about the time of Suibne's floruit was a particular son of Sitriuc mac Amlaíb, King of Dublin. According to the thirteenth-century Historia Gruffud vab Kenan, a son of Sitriuc named Amlaíb was the grandfather of Gruffudd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd. If this source is to be believed, Amlaíb held royal power in the Rhinns and the territory of the Gall Gaidheil (amongst other places). The text makes a clear distinction between the Rhinns and the lands of the Gall Gaidheil, treating them as separate territories. This suggests that the region encompassed within present-day Wigtownshire was regarded as distinct from the territory of the Gall Gaidheil in the eleventh century. The account may also be evidence that Amlaíb was a contemporary of Echmarcach and Suibne, and could indicate that he held power in Galloway and the Isles at some point between 1028 (the year his father set out upon a pilgrimage) and 1034 (a possible year of his death).
  The patronym borne by Suibne is the same as that of the reigning Máel Coluim mac Cináeda, King of Alba. This patronym could be evidence that he and Máel Coluim were related. One possibility is that Suibne's patronym shows that he and Máel Coluim were brothers, and that Suibne had been placed upon the throne in a region occupied by the Gall Gaidheil. In support of such an act is the fact that the twelfth-century Prophecy of Berchán associates Máel Coluim with Islay and Arran, and the claim by Ailred, Abbot of Rievaulx that Gallovidians were vassals of Máel Coluim's eventual successor Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, King of Alba. Máel Coluim certainly extended Scottish royal authority southwards into Lothian, and Strathclyde. If he had indeed managed to insert a brother into Galloway it could suggest that he possessed overlordship there as well, perhaps after his annexation of the former kingdom of Strathclyde. The notices of Suibne's demise, therefore, could be the first record of Scottish control of regions south-west of the River Clyde. If Suibne an
caption: The name of Echmarcach mac Ragnaill, Suibne's contemporary and possible rival, as it appears on folio 17r of Oxford Bodleian Library Rawlinson B 488: "Eachmarcach".[28]
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