General History of
the Highlands from the first Norwegian Invasion of that District to the
Accession of Malcolm Kenmore, and to the Termination of the Norwegian
Kingdom of the Highlands and Islands.
THE preceding
portion of this work has been devoted to a critical examination of the
fragments which remain of the early history of Scotland, by which we
have been brought to the conclusion, that the Highlanders of Scotland
are the descendants of the northern Picts; and in the course of that
examination, a view has been given of the leading facts of their
history, down to the end of the ninth century. The state of the
Highlanders at that period was very different indeed from what it was in
the thirteenth century, when the Highland clans first make their
appearance in their modern shape. In the ninth century we find them in
possession of the whole of the north of Scotland, with the exception of
the districts of Fife, Strathern, Angus, and Mearns, while in the
thirteenth century they were entirely confined to the mountainous part
of the country, and the eastern districts were occupied by a people of
Teutonic origin, and speaking a German language. The causes of this
change to the population are to be found in the events of Scottish
history during the tenth and eleventh centuries; it will therefore be
necessary, before proceeding with the history of the Highland clans, to
give a rapid sketch of these events, in so far as they affected the
state of the Highlands.
The limits of
this work must of necessity render that sketch as concise as possible;
but it will be proper to premise, that the history contained in the
following chapters will be found altogether different from that which
has generally been received; which arises from the simple fact, that
instead of following the monkish writers, who have given birth to the
fabulous notions of the present day, the author has gone to the only
genuine sources of the history of this early period now extant, namely,
the Norse Sagas, and the Annalists of Ireland, which, although entirely
unconnected, corroborate each other in so remarkable a manner as to
leave no doubt of the authenticity of their details.
With the tenth
century, the history of the Highlanders of Scotland may, properly
speaking, be said to commence. Previously to that period, they appear
indeed under their distinctive appellations of Dicaledones, Cruithne, or
northern Picts, but still they were not then marked out from the other
tribes of Scotland by any peculiarity of manners or of polity; – of
their internal condition we known nothing; – and their history in no
degree differed from that of Scotland generally.
The conquest
of the southern Picts by the Scots of Argyll, in which, if they were not
assisted, at least they were not opposed, by the northern Picts,
produced the first remarkable change in the internal state of Scotland.
The inhabitants of the Lowlands, from being a powerful and,
comparatively, civilized Celtic people, became a mixed race of Picts and
Scots; their learning, their civilization, and their very name being
lost in the Scottish barbarism with which they were overrun, while the
Highlanders found, according to the usual fate of Celtic policy, that,
in prosecuting an internal feud, they had placed a more formidable enemy
in a situation of power which it was by no means easy for them to
resist, and that they had purchased the defeat and ruin of their rival
race of southern Picts by the loss of their own independence. The
history of Scotland, from the Scottish conquest to the beginning of the
tenth century, is principally characterised by the gradual and steady
progress of the power and influence of the Scots in the plains of
Scotland, and by the resistance of the inhabitants of its mountains to
their domination, while both parties were equally exposed to the
harassing invasions of the northern pirates. The erection of the
Norwegian kingdom of the Isles and Earldom of Orkney, in the end of the
ninth century, produced the next change in the internal condition of
Scotland, and may be considered as throwing the first distinct light on
the history of the Highlands. Previously to this period, the ravages of
the Norwegian pirates had for some time been incessant, and, in general,
successful, yet they had not effected any permanent settlement either in
the isles or on the mainland of Scotland. The summer was spent by them
on the seas, ravaging and laying waste wherever they were attracted by
the prospect of plunder, while in winter they retired to some of the
numerous isles of Scotland, to secure their plunder and recruit their
followers. Towards the latter end of the ninth century, however, the
pirates who infested these isles, received a great addition to their
numbers and strength by the arrival of those Vikings who had
unsuccessfully opposed the conquest of Norway by Harald Harfagr, and who
preferred a piratical life on the ocean to one of submission to his
authority. The facilities of shelter and protection which these islands
afforded them, enabled them, by their incessant incursions on the newly
erected kingdom of Norway, to harass the conqueror who had expelled them
from their country, while, although Harald sent out his fleet every
summer to drive them from the islands where they had taken refuge, he
found that they merely evaded his force by flying to the open sea, and
returned again to these retreats in winter. At length, Harald finding it
in vain to protect his newly acquired dominions from the constant
incursions of these rovers, determined at once to put an end to their
predatory expeditions, by the conquest of the isles which had afforded
them shelter and the means of renewing these enterprises. For this
purpose, having collected a powerful fleet, he set sail in person from
Norway, and proceeding first to the Shetland Isles, he totally subdued
them, and drove out the pirates who had there taken refuge. Continuing
then his southern course, he reduced to his allegiance the Orkney Isles
and Hebrides, concluding an uninterrupted career of victory with the
capture of the Isle of Man, which was found deserted, its inhabitants
having fled on his approach to the neighbouring coast of Scotland. Here
he left a garrison for the maintenance of his authority in these distant
isles, and retracing his course towards the north, ravaged the coasts of
Scotland as he proceeded. Among the chiefs who had followed Harald in
his expedition to the west was Rognwald, the son of Eystein, who had
been made Iarl of the Maerians in Norway; he was accompanied by his
brother Sigurd and his son Ivar, the latter of whom was killed in some
one of the many encounters which Harald had with the pirates. In order
to recompense the father in some measure for such a loss, Harald, on his
return from the Irish seas, proposed to bestow upon Rognwald the isles
of Orkney and Shetland, in addition to his former possessions. But
Rognwald, finding that such a distant acquisition would bring more
trouble than profit, besought Harald’s permission to make over the
princely gift to his brother Sigurd, who was accordingly installed Iarl
of the Orkneys.
Harald had no
sooner returned to Norway than the native chiefs of the isles and the
neighbouring districts of the mainland, who had been either expelled or
subdued by the Norwegian pirates, took advantage of his absence, and of
the complete dispersion of the pirates which he had effected, to seize
possession of the isles, with the assistance of the Irish, and to
revenge themselves for their previous subjection, by the expulsion and
slaughter of the Norwegians whom Harald had left to secure the isles. In
order effectually to subject the western isles to his authority, and to
preclude the possibility of their again becoming a retreat for the
pirates, from which they might harass his dominions, Harald determined
to adopt the same method which had proved successful with the Orkneys,
and with that view he dispatched Ketil, the son of Biorn, chief of
Raumsdal, with a powerful fleet, and the title of Iarl, to the Hebrides.
Ketil reached the Orkneys in safety, and proceeding thence along the
line of the Hebrides, he successfully reduced them under his subjection,
the Islesmen apparently having been quite unprepared for the prompt
attack of the Norwegians.
No sooner,
however, did Ketil find himself in the quiet possession of the western
isles, than he determined to throw off his allegiance to the King of
Norway; for this purpose he strengthened himself by alliances of every
description, both with the native chiefs of the isles and also with
several of the pirates themselves, and then sending back to Norway the
troops which had established him in his new possessions, he refused to
pay the stipulated tribute to Harald, and declared himself independent
King of the Hebrides.
But Ketil was
not destined long to enjoy his newly erected kingdom, as he appears to
have died a very few years afterwards. On his death the chief authority
in the isles was assumed by his son Helgi and his grandson Thorstein the
Red the son of his daughter Audur and Olaf the White, King of Dublin.
The native chiefs of the isles seem soon after this to have embraced a
favourable opportunity of again throwing off the yoke of the Norwegians
altogether; as we find that Helgi left the Hebrides and settled with his
adherents in Iceland, while at the same time Thorstein the Red, Ketil’s
grandson, proceeded in company with his mother to the Orkneys. [Snorro,
Orkneyinga Saga, Landnamabok, Laxdaela Saga, Olaf’s Saga.]
Sigurd, then
Earl of the Orkneys, received Thorstein with hospitality, and forming a
close alliance with him, he took advantage of this great accession to
his strength, to make a descent in company with his ally upon the
northern districts of Scotland. The two pirate kings rapidly made
themselves masters of the districts of Kateness, Sutherland, Ross, and
Moray, and their progress southward was only arrested by that part of
the great barrier of the Grampians which forms the southern boundary of
the district of Marr. The Norse Sagas have recorded the names of two of
the Scottish Iarls or Maormors who were slain in this expedition, Meldun
and Melbrigda Tonn; the latter of these Maormors appears to have been
the last who opposed Sigurd, and was therefore in all probability
Maormor of Marr. The death of this maormor was revenged upon Sigurd in a
most remarkable manner, if we are to believe the incident as related in
the Norse Sagas. Melbrigda, say these writers, derived his appellation
of Tonn from his possessing a very prominent tooth, and Sigurd having
slain him in battle, cut off his head and suspended it to the front of
his saddle as he galloped over the field of his victory. The violence of
the motion occasioned the prominent tooth to inflict a wound on the
thigh of the Iarl, which inflamed, produced mortification, and
ultimately caused the Iarl’s death. He was buried in the territories of
him he had slain. [Landnamabok, Olafs Saga, & c.]
On the death
of Sigurd, his son Guttorm succeeded to him as Earl of Orkney, while
Thorstein the Red, retaining possession of the conquests of the
mainland, assumed the title of king of the half of Scotland. Thorstein
had scarcely enjoyed his newly acquired territories for six years when
the chiefs of the north of Scotland determined to make an effort for the
recovery of the districts which had been wrested from them by the
Norwegians. They united together, and under the command of Dungadi or
Duncan, the Iarl or Maormor of Caithness, they made a general and
simultaneous attack upon Thorstein; a pitched battle ensued, which ended
in the defeat and death of Thorstein, and the expulsion of the
Norwegians from the north of Scotland. [Sagas above referred to.]
Thus
terminated the first Norwegian kingdom in the Highlands, which lasted
too short a time to have had much effect upon the population. And after
this little can be gathered from the Norse writers as to the state of
Scotland till the close of the tenth century. Thorfinn, who was Earl of
Orkney about the middle of that century, appears to have regained
possession of Caithness, but during a long reign, made no other attempt
to extend his conquest in Scotland; he had married the daughter of
Duncan, the Maormor of Caithness, and in all probability founded a claim
to the district from that circumstance; but with the exception of
Caithness, the northern chiefs appear from the Sagas to have enjoyed the
undisturbed possession of their territories during the whole of this
period.
After the
kingdom of Thorstein, the Sagas throw somewhat more light upon the
internal state of the Highlands. From the first Norwegian conquest under
Thorstein to the end of that under Sigurd II., we find frequent mention
made of various powerful Scottish chiefs, who universally appear under
the Norwegian title of Iarls, but in addition to this we can now
distinctly trace the division of the north of Scotland into a number of
tribes, possessing considerable extent of territory, whose chiefs or
Maormors it was to whom the Norwegians gave the title of Iarl. The
people who opposed the invasions of the Norwegians at this period were
unquestionably the descendants of the very same people who fought with
the Romans many ages before, and who then exhibit the same division into
tribes of a similar extent. Now, when we consider the rugged and almost
inaccessible nature of the northern Highlands, the few circumstances
which occurred during the first eight centuries to make any great
alteration in the state of its tribes, and the unlikelihood that any
political change or event which might take place in a different part of
the country, could exercise any great influence over the inhabitants of
districts so remote; there is every reason to conclude that the northern
tribes would in all probability vary but little in their situation,
extent, numbers, or power, from the period of the Roman invasion to the
tenth century; and accordingly when we compare the number and situation
of the tribes into which the Highlands were divided in the tenth and
eleventh centuries, with the minute and accurate account of the
Caledonian tribes, given by Ptolemy in the second century, we find that
in three particulars only is there the slightest variation between them,
and that with these exceptions, the north of Scotland in the eleventh
century exhibits the exact counterpart, in the number and extent of its
tribes, to th same districts in the second.
The first
variation which we observe is in the situation of the two tribes of the
Caledonii and the Vascomagi. In Ptolemy’s time the Caledonii certainly
inhabited the west of Atholl, the district of Badenoch, and the numerous
glens which branch out on every side from Lochness, while the Vacomagi
possessed a tract of country extending along their eastern frontiers,
and embracing the present counties of Nairn and Elgin, the districts of
Strathspey, Strathearn, and Marr, and the eastern part of Atholl.
In the
eleventh century we find these tribes in a different situation; for the
territories occupied by these two tribes now formed the earldoms of
Atholl, Moray, and Marr, the ridge of the Mounth or Mound (including
Drumnachdar), dividing the former earldom from the two latter.
This ids a
change which could only have been produced by the sudden seizure of the
districts which afterwards formed the earldom of Moray by another tribe,
by which these two tribes would be respectively confined to Atholl and
Marr; and as the territories of the Taixali still remained unaltered as
the earldom of Buchan, probability points to the Canteae, who lay
immediately to the north of the districts in question, as the invading
tribe. Now, it is remarkable that we can distinctly trace this change in
the relative position of these tribes at a very early period in the
Irish Annals. In the year 666 Tighernac mentions the death of Eacha,
King of the Midland Cruithne. The Cruithne, we have seen, was
the peculiar name of the northern Picts, and as of all the tribes
mentioned by Ptolemy that of the Caledonii proper is the only one which
could be called Midland, it is plain that these kings of the Midland
Cruithne were the chiefs of that tribe. Now, we find a singular change
in their title within eighty years after this date, for in 739 Tighernac
mentions the death of Talorgan, King of Atholl. Atholl was always
a part of the territories of the Caledonians proper, and consequently,
when we find the chiefs of that tribe preserving their title of king,
but changing the designation of Midland Cruithne for the less extended
title of Atholl, we can have little difficulty in inferring that they
had between these two periods been deprived of the northern portion of
their territories, and confined principally to that district. This
change is confirmed by our finding distinct evidence of the extension of
the eastern tribes towards the west in 668, for at that date Tighernac
mentions the departure of the Gens Garnaidh with the people of Skye for
Ireland. The western position of the former tribe is sufficiently
indicated by that of the latter, and the coincidence between the
departure of that tribe for Ireland, and the loss of their northern
districts by the Caledonii, is sufficient to warrant us in concluding
that these events were connected, and that the expulsion of the Gens
Garnaidth, and the death of Eacha, the king of the Midland Cruithne, was
probably effected by the conquest of the latter together with the
Vacomagi by the Canteae, and the seizure by that tribe of the northern
part of their territories. In this way the Vacomagi would be confined to
the earldom of Marr, the Caledonii to that of Atholl, while the Canteae
would form the earldom if Moray; and as Tighernac mentions in 670 the
return of the Gens Gartnaidh from Ireland, they probably occupied the
district previously possessed by the Canteae, and which afterwards
formed the earldom of Ross. The same event will also account for the
next variation in the possession of these tribes. In Ptolemy’s time the
southern division of modern Argyll was inhabited by the Epidii, the
Creones extended from the Linne Loch to Kintail, and the present
district of Wester Ross was possessed by the Carnones.
In 503 we know
that the Dalriads obtained possession of the territories of the Epidii,
and it is equally certain that Dalriada did not extend north of the
Linne Loch. In 843 we know that the Dalriads left Dalriada and seized
possession of the extensive country of the southern Picts, but in the
eleventh century we find that the possessions of the Creones still
remained a distinct earldom, under the title of Garmoran, while those of
the Dalriads and the Carnones appear as forming part of one great
district, termed Ergadia or Oirirgael, while individually they were
known as Ergadia Borealis and Australis. It is also worthy of notice
that Lochaber formed a part of this great district, and in some degree
connected the two detached portions.
The name of
Argyll, it must be recollected, was not applied to any district of
Scotland previous to the Scottish conquest, and consequently it must
have arisen by the extension over the whole district of some tribe who
had previously inhabited a part. that tribe could not have been the
Dalriads, for such an extension would be quite incompatible with their
conquest of the southern Picts, and it is difficult to see how their
Highland conquest should have assumed such a form, or that the name of
Argyll would have been confined to that part of their conquest only.
The Creones
remained unaltered, and the only other people who at any time possessed
any part of this district are the Carnones, who inhabited Wester Ross,
and the Caledonians proper, who must have possessed Lochaber. One or
other of these two tribes must, it is plain, have first dispossessed the
other, so as to become the sole inhabitants of the northern part of
Ergadia; and on the departure of the Dalriads in 843, they must have
occupied the vacant territory, and thus extended the name over the
whole, for from the detached and arbitrary nature of the districts which
were included under the name of Argyll, it is impossible in any other
way to account for its application.
Now, it is
certainly remarkable, that at the very period when we have ascertained
that the tribe of the Caledonii or Midland Cruithne were driven out of
their northern possessions by the Canteae, and when the conquered
portion of the tribe must have taken refuge in other districts, probably
to the west, we see an otherwise unaccountable emigration of the Gens
Gartnaidh, or inhabitants of Wester Ross, to Ireland. The inference is
unavoidable, that the vanquished Caledonians had dispossessed them, and
taken possession of their territories. This tribe then, it is plain,
inhabited the whole of the great district of Argyll, with the exception
of Dalriada; and as at the period of the Scottish conquest in 843 they
surrounded Dalriada on every side, we can have little hesitation
in concluding that they probably obtained possession of the relinquished
districts, and extended the name of Argyll over the whole.
Such is the
natural deduction from the events obscurely indicated in the Irish
Annals, but that the fact was really so is proved by another
circumstance.
It will
afterwards be shewn, that the jurisdiction attached to each of the
Culdee monasteries, was exactly co-extensive with the territories of the
tribe in which the monastery was situated, and that these jurisdictions
were in number and extent the same with the earliest bishoprics in
Scotland. Now, the bishopric of Dunkeld originally consisted just of the
district of Atholl and of Argyll, the latter of which was separated from
it in A.D. 1200, and formed into an independent diocese. This is
sufficient proof that some one tribe possessed at one time both of these
districts and as Atholl was at all times the principal possession of the
Midland Cruithne or Caledonians proper, it puts the fact that the name
of Argyll was applied to the territories on the west coast, acquired at
different timers by that tribe, beyond a doubt. The only other change
which had taken place in the relative situations of the tribes is, that
in place of the two tribes of the Lougai and Mertae, we find the single
earldom of Sutherland, and this change is certainly to be attributed to
the conquest of the northern districts by Thorstein.
Although the
districts of Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, and Moray are certainly
mentioned by the Sagas as forming a part of his kingdom in Scotland, yet
it is plain, from the nature of the country and the rapidity with which
he overran the whole of it as far as the Mounth, that that conquest must
have comprehended only the eastern and less mountainous parts of these
districts. Thorstein retained possession of his conquered territories
for six years, and during this period it might be expected that the
native tribes inhabiting these districts would be almost driven out –
those whose possessions included mountain districts would take refuge
there in order to escape the invader, but it is scarcely to be expected
that any tribe whose sole possessions were on the coast would escape
almost total annihilation.
When the
unconquered tribes, however, succeeded in driving the Norwegians out of
the country, those who had taken refuge in their mountain recesses would
regain possession of that part of their territories which they had lost,
while the districts which had belonged to any tribe that had been
totally crushed and overwhelmed by the Norwegians, would probably become
the possession of the nearest tribe. Now the Lougai was almost the only
tribe whose possessions were confined to the coast and in the numerous
Norse accounts of Thorstein’s kingdom, we find traces of the extinction
of the family of but one of the many Scottish Iarls who opposed him. The
Landnamabok mentions the slaughter of Meldun, a Scottish Iarl, and the
slavery of his whole family, who did not recover their freedom even on
the reconquest of the northern districts by the native chiefs. There can
be little doubt from this that the tribe inhabiting the coast of
Sutherland had been almost entirely annihilated by the conquest of
Thorstein, and that the tribe inhabiting the interior of this district
had, on the extinction of the Norwegian kingdom, obtained possession of
the whole.
The changes
which had taken place in the relative situation of the northern tribes
in the second and in the eleventh century, will be more easily
understood from the following Table: –
Names of the
districts of the 10th Century Names of the Tribes
inhabiting them; from the Norse
Sagas. from Ptolemy.
Katans or Cathness
By the Kournaovioi.
Ness –
Durnes and Edderachylis. By the Kairinoi.
Sudrland
– Sutherland, except Strathnaver. By the Mertai. The
Lougoi were destroyed by
Thorstein, and the Mertai occupied the whole.
Ros –
Easter Ross By the Karnones, who were expelled from Wester Ross to Ireland, and two years
afterwards returned and took possession of Easter Ross.
– –
Garmoran By
the Kreones.
Myrhaevi
– Moray By the Kanteai, who expelled the Caledonioi and Vakomagol.
Dala –
Argyll By
the Kaledonioi, who originally possessed Atholl, occupied South Argyll on
its relinquishment by the Dalriads, and expelled the Karnones out of
North Argyll, or Wester Ross.
The second
conquest of the north of Scotland by the Norwegians took place towards
the end of the tenth century, and was occasioned by an attempt on the
part of the Scots to recover possession of Caithness. Finlay, the son of
Ruairi, Maormor of Moray, the chiefs of which district were at that time
the most powerful in the northern part of Scotland, marched to Caithness
with a powerful army, for the purpose of driving the Norwegians out of
that district. He was met by Sigurd, then Earl of Orkney, with the whole
force of the Orkneys, and after an obstinate engagement Finlay was
defeated and obliged to fly. Sigurd, upon this success, immediately
overran the whole of the Highlands with his victorious army, and
obtained possession, with little difficulty, of the districts of Ross,
Moray, Sutherland, and Dala or Argyll. The Celtic inhabitants of these
districts, although, after the total defeat which they had sustained
under the Maormor of Moray, they were unable to offer any opposition to
the progress of Sigurd, were not disposed to endure the Norwegian yoke
long without making an attempt to throw it off. Accordingly, Sigurd had
retained possession of the conquered territories for seven years only,
when the northern Maormors made a sudden rising, and succeeded in
surprising and expelling the Norwegians from the Highlands, and slaying
the governor whom the Earl of Orkney had placed over the conquered
districts. Sigurd no sooner became aware of this success, that he
collected a numerous army among the island, and at once proceeded to the
mainland of Scotland; but he had scarcely landed in Caithness before he
was informed that the Gaelic army under Kenneth and Melsnechtan,
Maormors of Dala and Ross, was stationed near Duncansbay Head for the
purpose of intercepting his progress. Sigurd immediately attacked the
Highland army, and succeeded in killing Melsnechtan, one of their
leaders, and putting the rest to flight. This success he would in all
probability have followed up with the entire destruction of their army,
and the recovery of his Highland possessions, had he not learned that
Malcolm, the Maormor of Moray and nephew of Finlay, was at that moment
approaching with an army too powerful for him to cope with. On receiving
his intelligence, Sigurd judged it prudent to retire to the Orkneys, and
thus left Malcolm in possession of the disputed districts. By Sigurd’s
retreat the Highland chiefs gained time to recover complete possession
of the whole of the territories which had been for seven years wrested
from them, and they established that possession so firmly, that Sigurd
was never afterwards able to obtain a footing upon the mainland of
Scotland. [Olafs Saga, Snorro, Niala Saga.]
Malcolm, the
Maormor of Moray, by his success in expelling the Norwegians, and by the
assistance derived from the extensive territories under his control, as
well as by his great personal talent, had now acquired so much power and
influence in the north of Scotland that he was enabled to obtain
possession of the Scottish throne itself. In what his title to the crown
consisted, or what was the nature of the claim which he made to it, it
is impossible now to determine; but certain it is that he was supported
in his attempt by the whole inhabitants of the northern part of
Scotland, and in order to obtain the countenance of a people so
singularly tenacious of their ancient customs, he must have possessed a
stronger claim than what mere power or influence could give him, more
especially as his descendants, for many generations afterwards,
constantly asserted their right to the throne of Scotland, and as
invariably received the assistance of the Celtic portion of its
inhabitants. In all probability the Highlanders were attempting to
oppose the hereditary succession in the family of Kenneth M’Alpin, and
to introduce the more ancient Pictish law. Be this as it may, however,
Malcolm, by the defeat and death of Kenneth M’Duff, at Monievaird,
became king of Scotland. Shortly after he had mounted the throne,
Malcolm effected a reconciliation with Sigurd, Earl of Orkney, who
married his daughter, and the fruit of this marriage was Thorfinn, who
afterwards became the most powerful earl which the Orkneys ever
possessed. On Malcolm’s death, after a reign of twenty-six years, the
Scottish faction, as it may be termed, in opposition to the Pictish or
northern party, succeeded in placing a descendant of Kenneth M’Alpin
again upon the throne. His name was also Malcolm; he was the son of
Kenneth, whom his predecessor had defeated and slain, and is known in
the Norse Sagas by the name of Kali Hundason. The second Malcolm had no
sooner commenced his reign that he appears to have directed his efforts
towards reducing the power of the Norwegians in Scotland; but this was a
task to which his strength was by no means equal, for his opponent
Thorfinn was a person of no ordinary talents and energy.
On the death
of Sigurd, his father, Thorfinn had received from his maternal
grandfather, Malcolm, king of Scotland, the district of Caithness, which
had so often been the subject of contention between the Norwegians and
the Scots, and during Malcolm’s life he had obtained every assistance
from him in the government of his dominions. Malcolm M’Kenneth therefore
determined to make this a pretext for going to war with Thorfinn. With
this intention he demanded tribute from him for the territories which he
possessed on the mainland of Scotland, and upon the refusal of the
Norwegian earl he gave Caithness to Moddan, his sister’s son, and
directed him to assume the Norwegian title of Iarl. Moddan accordingly,
in consequence of these directions, proceeded to the north, and raised
an army in Sutherland for the purpose of taking possession of the
district which had thus been bestowed upon him. But the Norwegians who
inhabited that district had no sooner heard of his arrival than they
immediately assembled under Thorfinn, who was at that time in Caithness,
and having been joined by a large force from the Highlands, commanded by
Thorkell, thee Scots found it necessary to retire, while Thorfinn took
advantage of the opportunity to subjugate the districts of Sutherland
and Ross, and to ravage the greater part of Scotland. Moddan in the
meantime having returned to the king, and having reported to him the ill
success of his expedition, Malcolm resolved upon making one great effort
to reduce Thorfinn. For this purpose he collected a fleet of eleven
ships, and the whole force of the south of Scotland, and dividing his
army, he went himself in the fleet towards the north, while he sent
Moddan by land with a strong detachment, with the intention of attacking
Thorfinn on both sides at once; but scarcely had Malcolm reached the
Pentland Firth when he was met by Thorfinn, who had in the meantime
retired to the Orkneys, where he had collected a powerful fleet. After a
long and fiercely contested engagement the Scottish fleet was completely
dispersed, and the king of Scotland, having with difficulty escaped,
fled to the Moray Firth, where he once more commenced to levy troops.
Nevertheless,
he was speedily followed by Thorfinn, who, having been joined by
Thorkell with troops raised by him in the Orkneys, also reached the
Moray Firth; but having learnt, so soon as he landed, that Moddan had
marched to Caithness with the other division of the Scottish army, and
was then at Thurso, he resolved to despatch Thorkell with a part of the
army to attack Moddan, while he himself with the rest of his force
remained to oppose Malcolm. Thorkell, aware that the inhabitants of
Caithness were favourable to the Norwegians, proceeded with such
expedition and secrecy that he succeeded in surprising Moddan in Thurso,
and having set fire to the town, he slew the leader and completely
dispersed his followers. Having collected additional forces in
Caithness, Sutherland, and Ross, Thorkell returned towards the Moray
Firth and joined Thorfinn in Moray.
Malcolm in the
meantime had once more collected forces, both from the east and west of
Scotland, his levies having even extended as far as Kintyre, and having
also been joined by a number of Irish auxiliaries who had been invited
over by Moddan, he determined to make a final effort for the expulsion
of the Norwegians, and marched accordingly with this immense army
towards the north in search of Thorfinn. He found the Norwegian earl not
the less prepared to meet him, that in numbers he was far inferior. A
battle took place between the two hostile races on the southern shore of
the Beauly Firth; each party seeming resolved to peril their cause upon
the result of this engagement; but the ferocity and determined valour of
the Norwegians at length prevailed over the numbers and undisciplined
daring of the Scots, and Malcolm was totally defeated, himself killed,
and his army almost destroyed. By this defeat the Scots were now left
altogether without the means of resistance, and Thorfinn followed up his
success by conquering the whole of Scotland as far as the Firth of Tay,
and completely subjugating the inhabitants.
The Norwegian
Saga gives a strong and powerful picture of the effects of this
conquest: “Earl Thorfinn drove the scattered remnants of the Scottish
army before him, and subjugated the whole country in his progress, even
as far as the district of Fyfe. He then sent Thorkell with a part of the
army home, but when the Scots, who had submitted to him, heard that the
earl had sent some part of his army away, they attacked him, but
unsuccessfully, for Earl Thorfinn no sooner perceived their treachery
than he gathered his army together again and met them. The Scots did not
attempt to defend themselves, but fled immediately to the woods and
deserts. Then Earl Thorfinn, when he had driven the fugitives away,
declared that he would burn and lay waste the whole country in revenge
for their treachery. His men then spread over the whole conquered
country, and burnt every hamlet and farm, so that not a cot remained.
Every man that they found they slew, but the old men and women fled to
the deserts and woods, and filled the country with lamentation. Some
were driven before the Norwegians and made slaves.
“Thus says
Arnor, the earl’s skald:
‘The dwellings were all
destroyed,
When he
burnt every where (that day
Danger
and death was not awanting,)
As among
dry reeds the red flames
Sprung
into the kingdom
Of the
Scots. The Great
Slayer
revenged himself
On the
Scots. In one summer
Three
times were they
Overcome
by the Prince.’
“After this Earl
Thorfinn returned to his ships, subjugating the country everywhere in
his progress.” [Orkneyinga Saga, Flatey Book. – Tighernac, Annals of
Ulster. It will be observed that the Author has here altogether departed
from the generally received history, and that in place of Malcolm II,
said to have reigned thirty years, he has placed two Malcolms of
different families, the first of whom reigned twenty-six and the latter
four years. This view he has adopted in consequence of finding the most
remarkable coincidence between the Irish Annals and the Norse Sagas,
both of which agree in these particulars.]
The Norwegians
thus obtained effectual possession of the greater part of the north of
Scotland, and their kingdom, which by the talents and energy of Thorfinn
they were enabled to retain for thirty years, was unparalleled in
its extent and duration by any previous or subsequent conquest. Besides
the Orkneys, which was their original seat, their possessions in
Scotland consisted now of the Hebrides and of nine of the great
districts or earldoms of Scotland, which, as far as can be gathered from
the Sagas, appear to have been those of Caithness, Ness, Sutherland,
Ross, Moray, Garmoran, Buchan, Marr, and Angus; while to the Scot there
remained nothing north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, except the
districts of Fyfe, Strathern, Menteith, Gowry, and Lennox, with the two
northern districts of Atholl and Argyll. [All the Norse Sagas are
unanimous as to the extraordinary extent of Thorfinn’s conquest.]
The effects of
this conquest seem to have been more particularly felt by the
Scottish portion of the population, and its immediate result appears
to have been the complete extinction of the house of Kenneth Mac Alpin,
which for so many generations had filled the Scottish throne, the
extirpation of the greater part of the chiefs of the Scottish race, and
the termination of that superiority and dominion which they had so long
maintained in the Lowlands of Scotland.
But besides
the portion of the country occupied by the Scots, a considerable part of
the territories of the northern Picts remained unconquered by the
Norwegians, while Thorfinn extended his conquests to the banks of the
Firth of Tay, and while he effected the utter destruction of the
Scottish possessions, even of those districts which he had not overrun
with his victorious troops, the district of Atholl and the greater part
of Argyll was sufficiently protected by its mountain barriers from his
power, and became now the only part of Scotland which could offer any
resistance to his progress.
In addition to
this, one of its most powerful chiefs had married the daughter of the
last king, and his son, who thus added a hereditary right to the throne
to the influence which he derived from his power, appears to have been
proclaimed king without any opposition, and to have received the
unanimous support of all who were still independent of the Norwegian
yoke. In personal character Duncan was far from being well fitted for
the difficult situation in which he was placed, but being the only chief
of the northern Picts who remained unsubdued by the Norwegians, he was
the most likely person to preserve the rest of Scotland from their
grasp; and during the whole of his reign he appears to have been
unmolested by Thorfinn in his circumscribed dominions. The Scots having
thus enjoyed, during Duncan’s reign, six years of repose, began to
consider their strength sufficiently recruited to attempt the recovery
of the extensive territories in the north which Thorfinn had conquered.
Taking advantage accordingly of the temporary absence of Thorfinn, who
was engaged with the greater part of his Norwegian force in an English
expedition, Duncan advanced towards the north of Scotland, and succeeded
in penetrating as far as the district of Moray without encountering
apparently any resistance. The Gaelic inhabitants of the north, however,
who preferred remaining under the Norwegian yoke rather than submit to a
chief of their own race whose title to the throne they could not admit,
opposed his farther progress, and Macbeth, the Maormor of Moray,
attacked him near Elgin, defeated his army, and slew the king himself.
Macbeth immediately took advantage of this success, and assisted by the
Norwegian force which still remained in the country, he overran the
whole of Scotland, and speedily made himself master of all that had
remained unconquered by the Norwegians. The sons of Duncan were obliged
to fly; the eldest took refuge at the court of England, while the second
fled from the vengeance of Macbeth to the Hebrides, and surrendered to
Thorfinn himself. Macbeth, with the sanction probably of the Earl of
Orkney, assumed the title of King of Scotland, which he claimed in right
of his cousin Malcolm, and notwithstanding all the efforts of the Scots
he maintained possession of the crown for a period of eighteen years.
Although
Macbeth was a native chief and one of the Gaelic Maormors of the north,
yet his conquest can only be considered with regard to its effects as a
Norwegian conquest. He had previously been tributary to that people, and
it was by their assistance principally that he became king of Scotland;
so that at this period we may consider the whole country as having been
virtually under the dominion of the Norwegians: Thorfinn himself ruling
over the northern districts, while with his concurrence Macbeth reigned
in the southern half.
During the
reign of Macbeth the adherents of the Atholl family made two several
attempts to recover possessions of the throne, but they were both
equally unsuccessful. The first occurred in the year 1045, when Crinan,
the father of Duncan, attacked Macbeth at the head of all the adherents
of the family in Scotland; Crinan’s defeat was total, and the slaughter
very great; for in the concise words of the Irish Annalists, “In that
battle was slain Crinan, Abbot of Dunkeld, and many with him, viz. nine
times twenty heroes.” This defeat seems for the time to have completely
extinguished Duncan’s party in Scotland, and it was not till nine years
afterwards that the second attempt was made. Malcolm, Duncan’s eldest
son, who had taken refuge in England, obtained from the English king the
assistance of a Saxon army, under the command of Siward, the Earl of
Northumberland, but although Siward succeeded in wresting Lothian from
Macbeth, and in placing Malcolm as king over it, he was unable to obtain
any further advantage, and Macbeth still retained the kingdom of
Scotland proper, while Malcolm ruled as king over Lothian until, four
years afterwards, a more favourable opportunity occurred for renewing
the enterprise. The son of the king of Norway, in the course of one of
the numerous piratical expeditions which were still undertaken by the
Norwegians, had arrived at the Orkneys, and on finding the great state
of power to which Thorfinn had raised himself, he proposed that they
should join in undertaking an expedition having no less an object than
the subjugation of the kingdom of England. To this proposal the
enterprising Earl of Orkney at once acceded, and the two sea kings
departed for the south with the whole Norwegian force which they could
collect. It was not destined, however, that they should even land on the
English coast, for their fleet appears to have been dispersed and almost
destroyed in a tempest; such was probably at least the calamity which
befel [sic] the expedition, as the words of the Irish annalist who alone
records the event are simply, “but God was against them in that affair.”
It appears
that the king of England had no sooner become aware of the discomfiture
of the threatened invasion of his territories, than he sent an English
army into Scotland for the purpose of overthrowing the power of the
Norwegians in that country, and of establishing Malcolm Kenmore on his
father’s throne; and in the absence of the Norwegians the Saxon army was
too powerful for the Gaelic force of Macbeth to withstand. The English
accordingly made themselves masters of the south of Scotland, and drove
Macbeth as far north as Lumphanan, where he was overtaken and slain in
battle. Upon the death of Macbeth, Lulach, the son of his cousin
Gillcomgain, succeeded him, but after maintaining a struggle with
Malcolm for the short space of three months, he also was defeated and
slain at Esse, in Strathbolgie. In consequence of this defeat, Malcolm
Kenmore obtained, by the assistance of the English, quiet possession of
the throne of Scotland, which his own power and talents enabled him to
preserve during the remainder of his life. He was prevented, apparently
by the return of Thorfinn, from attempting to recover any part of the
northern districts which the Norwegian earl had subjugated, and
consequently his territories consisted only of those southern districts
which Macbeth had acquired by the defeat of his father Duncan.
From the
accession of Malcolm Kenmore to the death of Thorfinn which took place
six years after, the state of Scotland remained unaltered, and the
country exhibited the remarkable spectacle of a Gaelic population, one
half of which obeyed the rule of a Norwegian earl, while the other half
was subdued by a prince of their own race at the head of a Saxon army.
