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Michael Hunter Brown [1] (born 1965) is a Scottish medievalist lecturing at the University of St Andrews. In 1991 he was the recipient of the Royal Historical Society's David Berry Prize. His volume on the reign of King James I of Scotland led to the award of the Agnes Mure prize for Scottish history. Brown's work is concentrated on late Medieval Scotland and its nobility. He is married to Margaret Connolly who also works at the University of St Andrews as a medievalist.
Rǫgnvaldr Óláfsson was a twelfth-century King of the Isles, succeeding the warrior Somerled. He was a son of Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles and a member of the Crovan dynasty. In the 1153, Óláfr was assassinated by three nephews, before his son, Guðrøðr, was able to overcome them and succeed his father as king. By 1158, Guðrøðr was forced from power by his brother-in-law, Somairle mac Gilla Brigte, who was married to Óláfr's daughter Ragnhildr. In 1164, when Somairle was killed in an invasion of Scotland, and while Guðrøðr was away in exile overseas, Rǫgnvaldr briefly seized the kingship for himself, before being overcome by Guðrøðr, who had him blinded and mutilated.
Castles are buildings that combine fortifications and residence, and many were built within the borders of modern Scotland. They arrived in Scotland with the introduction of feudalism in the twelfth century. Initially these were wooden motte-and-bailey constructions, but many were replaced by stone castles with a high curtain wall. During the Wars of Independence, Robert the Bruce pursued a policy of castle slighting. In the Late Middle Ages, new castles were built, some on a grander scale as "livery and maintenance" castles that could support a large garrison. Gunpowder weaponry led to the use of gun ports, platforms to mount guns and walls adapted to resist bombardment.
The Kingdom of Alba was the Kingdom of Scotland between the deaths of Donald II in 900 and of Alexander III in 1286. The latter's death led indirectly to an invasion of Scotland by Edward I of England in 1296 and the First War of Scottish Independence.
Scotland in the Middle Ages concerns the history of Scotland from the departure of the Romans to the adoption of major aspects of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century.
Guðrøðr Magnússon, also known as Godred Magnusson, was an illegitimate son of Magnús Óláfsson, King of Mann and the Isles. In 1275, whilst Mann was under Scottish overlordship, Guðrøðr led an unsuccessful revolt on the island. According to a near contemporary source, over five hundred people lost their lives in the subsequent Scottish invasion and suppression of the Manx. It is not certain whether Guðrøðr escaped the decisive defeat of the rebels at Battle of Ronaldsway with his life or if he was among the slain.
Scotland was divided into a series of kingdoms in the early Middle Ages, i.e. between the end of Roman authority in southern and central Britain from around 400 CE and the rise of the kingdom of Alba in 900 CE. Of these, the four most important to emerge were the Picts, the Gaels of Dál Riata, the Britons of Alt Clut, and the Anglian kingdom of Bernicia. After the arrival of the Vikings in the late 8th century, Scandinavian rulers and colonies were established on the islands and along parts of the coasts. In the 9th century, the House of Alpin combined the lands of the Scots and Picts to form a single kingdom which constituted the basis of the Kingdom of Scotland.
The Kingdom of Scotland was a sovereign state in northwest Europe traditionally said to have been founded in 843. Its territories expanded and shrank, but it came to occupy the northern third of the island of Great Britain, sharing a land border to the south with the Kingdom of England. During the Middle Ages, Scotland engaged in intermittent conflict with England, most prominently the Wars of Scottish Independence, which saw the Scots assert their independence from the English. Following the annexation of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles from Norway in 1266 and 1472 respectively, and the capture of Berwick by England in 1482, the territory of the Kingdom of Scotland corresponded to that of modern-day Scotland, bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In 1603, James VI of Scotland became King of England, joining Scotland with England in a personal union. In 1707, during the reign of Queen Anne, the two kingdoms were united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain under the terms of the Acts of Union.
Aonghus mac Somhairle was a leading member of Clann Somhairle. He was a son of Somhairle mac Giolla Brighde, King of the Isles and Ragnhildr Óláfsdóttir. Other sons of Somhairle and Ragnhildr include Dubhghall, Raghnall, and possibly Amhlaoíbh. Aonghus' father was the common ancestor of Clann Somhairle. The succession of this kindred upon Somhairle's death is uncertain. The Clann Somhairle imperium appears to have spanned from Glenelg in the north, to the Mull of Kintyre in the south. It is possible that Aonghus came to rule in the north, with Dubhghall centred in Lorne, and Raghnall in Kintyre and the southern islands.
Clann Ruaidhrí was a leading medieval clan in the Hebrides and the western seaboard of Scotland. The eponymous ancestor of the family was Ruaidhrí mac Raghnaill, a principal member of Clann Somhairle in the thirteenth century. Members of Clann Ruaidhrí were factors in both the histories of the Kingdom of the Isles and the Kingdom of Scotland in the thirteenth- and fourteenth centuries. The family appears to have held power in Kintyre in the thirteenth century. By the fourteenth century, the family controlled an extensive provincial lordship stretching along north-western Scottish coast and into the Hebrides. As a leading force in the Kingdom of the Isles, the family fiercely opposed Scottish authority. With the collapse of Norwegian hegemony in the region, the family nimbly integrated itself into the Kingdom of Scotland.
Scotland in the Late Middle Ages, between the deaths of Alexander III in 1286 and James IV in 1513, established its independence from England under figures including William Wallace in the late 13th century and Robert Bruce in the 14th century. In the 15th century under the Stewart Dynasty, despite a turbulent political history, the Crown gained greater political control at the expense of independent lords and regained most of its lost territory to approximately the modern borders of the country. However, the Auld Alliance with France led to the heavy defeat of a Scottish army at the Battle of Flodden in 1513 and the death of the king James IV, which would be followed by a long minority and a period of political instability.
Ailéan mac Ruaidhrí was a leading figure in the thirteenth-century kingdoms of the Isles and the Scotland. He was a son of Ruaidhrí mac Raghnaill, and thus a member of the Clann Ruaidhrí branch of Clann Somhairle. Ailéan was a brother of Dubhghall mac Ruaidhrí, King of Argyll and the Isles, a significant figure who held power in the mid thirteenth century. At the time, the rulers of the Isles were fiercely independent of the Scottish Crown, and owed nominal allegiance to the distant Norwegian Crown. In 1259, Dubhghall's daughter married the son of King of Connacht, and Ailéan is recorded to have commanded the woman's tocher of one hundred and sixty gallowglass warriors.
Christina of the Isles was a fourteenth-century Scottish noblewoman. She was the daughter of Ailéan mac Ruaidhrí and a leading member of Clann Ruaidhrí. Although Ailéan had two sons, Lachlann and Ruaidhrí, both appear to have been illegitimate, whereas Christina was legitimate, and possibly a daughter of Ailéan's wife, Isabella.
Warfare in Medieval Scotland includes all military activity in the modern borders of Scotland, or by forces originating in the region, between the departure of the Romans in the fifth century and the adoption of the innovations of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. In this period conflict developed from minor raids to major conflicts, incorporating many of the innovations of continental warfare.
Kermac Macmaghan was a thirteenth-century Scottish nobleman. In 1262, he is stated to have aided William I, Earl of Ross in a particularly vicious attack in the Hebrides. The assault itself is recorded by a thirteenth-century Scandinavian saga, and was likely conducted on behalf of Alexander III, King of Scotland, who wished to incorporate Isles into the Scottish realm. The following year, Hákon Hákonarson, King of Norway launched an expedition into the Isles to reassert Norwegian authority. The latter's campaign proved to be an utter failure, and after his departure and death the same year, the Scots forced the submission of the leading magnates of the Isles. In 1264, Kermac is recorded to have received compensation for services rendered. A fifteenth-century pedigree concerning Clan Matheson seems to indicate that Kermac is identical to a certain Coinneach mac Mathghamhna, ancestor of the clan. The latter may or may not be an ancestor of Clan Mackenzie.
Dubhghall mac Suibhne was a Scottish landholder in Argyll, and a leading member of Clann Suibhne. He was a son of Suibhne mac Duinn Shléibhe, and appears to have held lordship of Knapdale from at least the 1240s to the 1260s, and may have initiated the construction of Skipness Castle and Lochranza Castle.
Murchadh Mac Suibhne was a leading member of Clann Suibhne. He was a grandson of the family's eponymous ancestor Suibhne mac Duinn Shléibhe, and a nephew of the family's mid-thirteenth-century representative, Dubhghall mac Suibhne.
Government in medieval Scotland, includes all forms of politics and administration of the minor kingdoms that emerged after the departure of the Romans from central and southern Britain in the fifth century, through the development and growth of the combined Scottish and Pictish kingdom of Alba into the kingdom of Scotland, until the adoption of the reforms of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century.
The architecture of Scotland in the Middle Ages includes all building within the modern borders of Scotland, between the departure of the Romans from Northern Britain in the early fifth century and the adoption of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century, and includes vernacular, ecclesiastical, royal, aristocratic and military constructions. The first surviving houses in Scotland go back 9500 years. There is evidence of different forms of stone and wooden houses exist and earthwork hill forts from the Iron Age. The arrival of the Romans led to the abandonment of many of these forts. After the departure of the Romans in the fifth century, there is evidence of the building of a series of smaller "nucleated" constructions sometimes utilizing major geographical features, as at Dunadd and Dumbarton. In the following centuries new forms of construction emerged throughout Scotland that would come to define the landscape.
Events from the year 1313 in the Kingdom of Scotland.
Scottish literature in the Middle Ages is literature written in Scotland, or by Scottish writers, between the departure of the Romans from Britain in the fifth century, until the establishment of the Renaissance in the late fifteenth century and early sixteenth century. It includes literature written in Brythonic, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, French and Latin.
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