page_title: Somerled
section_title: Conquest of the Isles
hierarchical_section_title: Somerled / Conquest of the Isles
caption_attribution_description: English: Lewis chessmen piece, British Museum.
context_page_description: Somerled, known in Middle Irish as Somairle, Somhairle, and Somhairlidh, and in Old Norse as Sumarliði, was a mid-12th-century Norse-Gaelic lord who, through marital alliance and military conquest, rose in prominence to create the Kingdom of Argyll and the Isles. Little is certain of Somerled's origins, although he may have been born in Northern Ireland and appears to have belonged to a Norse–Gaelic family of some prominence. His father, GilleBride, of royal Irish ancestry, appears to have conducted a marriage alliance with Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair, son of Alexander I of Scotland, and claimant to the Scottish throne. During a period of alliance with David I of Scotland, Somerled married Ragnhild, daughter of Olaf Godredsson, King of Man and the Isles in 1140. In 1153, Olaf of Man died and was succeeded by his son, Godred. But Godred Olafsson was a very unpopular ruler. Somerled was asked by Thorfinn Ottarson, a Manx chief, to allow Somerled's son, Dugall, to be appointed king of Man and the Isles. Somerled agreed and with 80 ships confronted Godred off the coast of Islay on January 5-6, 1156.
context_section_description: In 1154, war broke out in Ireland between Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, King of Cenél nEógain (d. 1166) and Toirdelbach Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht (d. 1156), as the two rivals renewed their struggle for domination over the island. In one particular clash, recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters, a savage sea-battle was fought near Inishowen, where Toirdelbach's forces encountered Muirchertach's mercenary fleet, mustered from Galloway, Arran, Kintyre, Mann, and "the shores of Scotland" (which possibly refers to Argyll and the Hebrides). The ensuing conflict saw Toirdelbach's Connachtmen crush Muirchertach's mercenaries, and the losses suffered by the forces supplied by Godred appear to have undermined the latter's authority in the Isles. Possibly about two years later, although the chronology of events within the relevant sources is unclear, Godred appears to have suffered another setback, when he unsuccessfully attempted to secure control of the Kingdom of Dublin. In 1156, Malcolm's son, Donald, was captured and imprisoned by the Scots. With this event likely marking the collapse of the insurrection of his nepotes, Somerled appears to have abandoned their cause, and shifted his focus towards the deteriorating situation in the Isles, where disaffected elements appear to have taken root against not only Godred's rule, but also Muirchertach's influence in the region.
  In the same year, Somerled is recorded to have participated in a coup d'état against his brother-in-law, as the Chronicle of Mann relates that, Thorfinn Ottarsson, one of the leading men of the Isles, produced Somerled's son Dugald (d. after 1175), as a replacement to Godred's rule. As a grandson of Olaf, and the son of a man with the enterprise and power to confront Muirchertach, Dugald was evidently favoured by a significant number of leading Islesmen, disillusioned with Godred's rule; Somerled, therefore, appears to have taken full advantage of the situation to secure his eldest son a share in the kingdom. Somerled's stratagem does not appear to have received unanimous support, since the chronicle relates that, as Dugald was conducted throughout the Isles, the leading Islesmen were made to render pledges and surrender hostages to him. Following an inconclusive but bloody sea-battle, possibly fought off Mann the following January, the chronicle records that Somerled and Godred divided the kingdom between themselves. According to the History of the MacDonalds, Somerled had previously aided Godred's father in military operations (otherwise unrecorded in contemporary sources) against the "ancient Danes north of Ardnamurchan". Together with its claim that Olaf had also campaigned on North Uist, this source may be evidence that the partitioning of the Isles between Godred and Somerled can be viewed in the context of Somerled taking back territories that he had helped secure into Olaf's kingdom. There is reason to suspect that portions of the Isles had previously fallen under the influence of the Earls of Orkney, before being reclaimed by the Kings of Isles during this period.
  At about the time of the partitioning of the Isles, Malcolm IV was reconciled with Malcolm MacHeth (d. 1168), and restored the latter as Earl of Ross, an investiture which may have been a consequence of Somerled's threatening territorial expansion. After the partition, Somerled and Godred appear to have agreed to a truce. However, about two years later in 1158, the chronicle records that Somerled launched a second assault upon Godred, and drove him from the kingdom altogether. From this date until his death, Somerled ruled the entire Kingdom of the Isles, and may well have exerted some degree of influence in Galloway. The Chronicle of Melrose and the Chronicle of Holyrood record that Malcolm IV launched military operations in Galloway in about 1160, with the latter chronicle specifying that the king subdued his "confederate enemies". The exact identity of these enemies is unknown, but the chronicles may document a Scottish victory over an alliance between Somerled and Fergus. Before the
caption: Lewis chess piece depicting the armament of a Norse warrior roughly contemporaneous to Somerled.[note 7]
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