On the death of King David, his grandson was at once taken by those who had acknowledged him as heir, and crowned at Scone, and he is the first king of whom we have the fact of his coronation at Scone stated on contemporary authority.[[689]]
A.D. 1154.
Somerled invades the kingdom with the sons of Malcolm Maceth.
This had no sooner been accomplished, than Somerled, the regulus of Arregaithel, rose against him in conjunction with his nephews, the sons of Malcolm mac Eth, and assailed the kingdom at all quarters.[[690]] The civil war had lasted three years, when, in the year 1156, Donald, the eldest son of Malcolm, was taken prisoner at Whitherne, in Galloway, by some of Malcolm’s adherents, and delivered over to him, when he was imprisoned in the castle of Marchmont along with his father.[[691]] Somerled, however, continued the war, and Malcolm found it expedient to neutralise the support he received from those who still adhered to the cause of Malcolm Maceth, by coming to terms with him. Accordingly he liberated Malcolm in the following year. William of Newburgh tells us that ‘he gave him a certain province, which suspended the incursion he had instigated.’ There is good reason for thinking that this province was the earldom of Ross,[[692]] a remote district over which King Malcolm could exercise but little authority; and he may have thought that his prisoner might expend his turbulent energy there with impunity—a view so far realised, as William of Newburgh further relates, that ‘whilst he was proudly proceeding through his subject province surrounded by his army like a king, some of the people who were unable to endure either his power or his insolence, with the consent of their chiefs, laid a snare for him.’ Obtaining a favourable opportunity, when he was following slowly and almost unattended a large party which he had sent forward to procure entertainment, they took and bound him and deprived him of both his eyes, and otherwise mutilated him. ‘Afterwards he came to us,’ says William of Newburgh, ‘at Byland, and quietly continued there many years till his death. But he is reported even there to have said that had he only the eye of a sparrow, his enemies should have little occasion to rejoice at what they had done to him.’[[693]] In the meantime events had occurred which led to a temporary peace between the king and Somerled. Olave, the Norwegian king of the Isles, had died in the same year as King David, and his son Godred had succeeded him. Somerled had married the daughter of Olave, by whom he had a son, Dugall; and three years after Godred’s accession, when his tyrannical mode of government had excited great discontent, Somerled took advantage of it to endeavour to have his son Dugall made king of the Isles. This led to a naval engagement between Godred and Somerled on the night of the Epiphany, or 6th of January 1156, in which there was great slaughter on both sides, and an agreement was made by which the Isles were divided between them. The contest, however, continued between them, and Somerled seems to have been glad to make peace with Malcolm in 1159.[[694]]
The opposition to Malcolm had as yet proceeded from the western districts over which Somerled ruled, and where the family of Malcolm Maceth found support, but this had been no sooner quieted by the conclusion of peace between them and the king, than he was exposed to a greater danger from the alienation of the Gaelic population of the kingdom of Scotland proper, and their native rulers, which he appears to have provoked by his apparent attachment to the king of England. He could hardly, from his extreme youth, be held responsible for the treaty in 1157, by which Northumberland and Cumberland were surrendered to the English monarch, but he had now attained the age of seventeen. In the previous year he had gone to Chester to meet the king of England for the purpose of obtaining knighthood at his hand, which, owing to some difference between them, was refused, but he now passed over to France and joined the king, who was besieging Toulouse, and served in his army.
A.D. 1160.
Revolt of six earls.
In consequence of news which reached Malcolm of the dissatisfaction in Scotland proper, he returned hastily, and on reaching the town of Perth, where according to Fordun he had summoned his nobles and clergy to meet him, he was besieged by Ferteth, earl of Stratherne, and five others of the seven earls of Scotland, who wished to take him prisoner, but failed in the attempt.[[695]] Neither the Chronicle of Melrose nor Fordun tells us the cause of the failure, but the latter adds that he was by the advice of the clergy brought to a good understanding with his nobles. But they soon found that he was prepared to act with vigour, and to show that he was, though young, capable of reducing all recalcitrant provinces to his authority.
A.D. 1160. Subjection of Galloway.
In the same year he thrice invaded the district of Galloway with a large army, and brought its inhabitants finally under subjection.[[696]]
A.D. 1160. Plantation of Moray.
According to Fordun, he likewise invaded the district of Moravia or Moray, ‘removed them all from the land of their birth, and scattered them throughout the other districts of Scotland, both beyond the hills and on this side thereof, so that not even a native of that land abode there, and he installed therein his own peaceful people.’[[697]] This statement is probably only so far true that he may have repressed the rebellious inhabitants of the district, and followed his grandfather’s policy by placing foreign settlers in the low and fertile land on the south side of the Moray Firth, extending from the Spey to the river Findhorn; and here he certainly did grant the lands of Innes and Etherurecard, extending from the Spey to the Lossie, to Berowald the Fleming, by a charter granted at Perth on the first Christmas after the agreement between the king and Somerled.[[698]]