page_title: Máel Coluim, King of Strathclyde
section_title: Máel Coluim and an assembly of kings
hierarchical_section_title: Máel Coluim, King of Strathclyde / Máel Coluim and an assembly of kings
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration of Edgar, King of the English, being rowed on the River Dee by eight kings. The original caption reads: "Edgar the Peaceable being rowed down the Dee by eight tributary princes".
context_page_description: Máel Coluim was a tenth-century King of Strathclyde. He was a younger son of Dyfnwal ab Owain, King of Strathclyde, and thus a member of the Cumbrian dynasty that had ruled the kingdom for generations. Máel Coluim's Gaelic name could indicate that he was born during either an era of amiable relations with the Scots, or else during a period of Scottish overlordship. In 945, the Edmund I, King of the English invaded the kingdom, and appears to have granted the Scots permission to dominate the Cumbrians. The English king is further reported to have blinded several of Máel Coluim's brothers in an act that could have been an attempt to deprive Dyfnwal of an heir.
  It is unknown when Dyfnwal's reign came to an end. There is reason to suspect that a certain Rhydderch ap Dyfnwal was a son of his, and that this man ruled when he assassinated the reigning King of Alba in 971. Certainly by 973, Máel Coluim was associated with the kingship, as both he and his father are recorded to have participated in a remarkable meeting of kings assembled by Edgar, King of the English. The context of this assembly is not entirely clear.
context_section_description: There is evidence to suggest that both Máel Coluim and his father were amongst the assembled kings said to have convened with Edgar at Chester in 973. According to the "D", "E", and "F" versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, after having been consecrated king that year, this English monarch assembled a massive naval force and met with six kings at Chester. By the tenth century, the number of kings who met with him was alleged to have been eight, as evidenced by the tenth-century Life of St Swithun. By the twelfth century, the eight kings began to be named and were alleged to have rowed Edgar down the River Dee, as evidenced by sources such as the twelfth-century texts Chronicon ex chronicis, Gesta regum Anglorum, and De primo Saxonum adventu, as well as the thirteenth-century Chronica majora, and both the Wendover and Paris versions of Flores historiarum.
  Whilst the symbolic tale of the men rowing Edgar down the river may be an unhistorical embellishment, most of the names accorded to the eight kings can be associated with contemporary rulers, suggesting that some of these men may have taken part in a concord with him. Although the latter accounts allege that the kings submitted to Edgar, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle merely states that they came to an agreement of cooperation with him, and thus became his efen-wyrhtan ("co-workers", "even-workers", "fellow-workers"). One possibility is that the assembly somehow relates to Edmund's attested incursion into Cumbria in 945. According to the same source, when Edmund let Cumbria to Máel Coluim mac Domnaill, he had done so on the condition that the latter would be his mid-wyrhta ("co-worker", "even-worker", "fellow-worker", "together-wright"). Less reliable non-contemporary sources such as De primo Saxonum adventu, both the Wendover and Paris versions of Flores historiarum, and Chronica majora allege that Edgar granted Lothian to Cináed in 975. If this supposed grant formed a part of the episode at Chester, it along with the concord of 945 could indicate that the assembly of 975 was not a submission as such, but more of a conference concerning mutual cooperation along the English borderlands. Although the precise chronology of Cumbrian expansion is uncertain, by 927 the southern frontier of the Kingdom of Strathclyde appears to have reached the River Eamont, close to Penrith. As such, the location of the assembly of 973 at Chester would have been a logical site for all parties.
  One of the other named kings was Cináed. Considering the fact that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle numbers the kings at six, if Cináed was indeed present, it is unlikely that his rival, Cuilén's brother Amlaíb mac Illuilb, was also in attendance. Although the chronology concerning the reigns of Cináed and Amlaíb mac Illuilb is uncertain—with Amlaíb mac Illuilb perhaps reigning from 971/976–977 and Cináed from 971/977–995—the part played by the King of Alba at the assembly could well have concerned the frontier of his realm. One of the other named kings seems to have been Maccus mac Arailt, whilst another could have been this man's brother, Gofraid. These two Islesmen may have been regarded as threats by the Scots and Cumbrians. Maccus and Gofraid are recorded to have devastated Anglesey at the beginning of the decade, which could indicate that Edgar's assembly was undertaken as a means to counter the menace posed by these energetic insular Scandinavians. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that, as a consequence of the assembly at Chester, the brothers may have turned their attention from the British mainland westwards towards Ireland.
  Another aspect of the assembly may have concerned the remarkable rising power of Amlaíb Cúarán in Ireland. Edgar may have wished to not only rein in men such as Maccus and Gofraid, but prevent them—and the Scots and Cumbrians—from affiliating themselves with Amlaíb Cúarán, and recognising the latter's authority in the Irish Sea region. Another factor concerning Edgar, and his Scottish and Cumbrian counterparts, may have been the stability of the northern English frontier. For exa
caption: An early twentieth-century depiction of Edgar being rowed down the River Dee by eight kings.[64] According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Edgar met six kings at Chester. By the twelfth century, chroniclers alleged that eight kings rowed Edgar down the river in an act of submission.[65] One of these eight was Máel Coluim himself.
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