To the lordys off that land he gave.
Oure the Mownth theyne passyd he sene,
And held hys Yhule in Abbyrdene.[[722]]
This expedition seems to have thus lasted from Whitsunday till near Christmas, and to have been confined to Argyll south of the Mounth, and thus was this region also brought under subjection to the crown. The rebels appear to have taken refuge in Galloway, and here we find them witnessing a charter in that year of lands in Galloway to the monks of Melrose. After the abbot of Melrose; Alan son of Roland of Galloway; Fergus son of Uchtred; Edgar son of Dovenald; Duncan son of Gilbert Earl of Carrick, all lords of Galloway, appear the following names:—‘Gileskop Macihacain; Giladuenan son of Duvegal; Gillecrist son of Kenedi; Iwan son of Alewain; Gillenef Okeueltal; Gilleroth son of Gillemartin; Makeg son of Kyin; and Gillefakeneshi son of Gillin;’[Gillin;’][[723]] all no doubt fully justifying Fordun’s epithet of ‘iniquus.’ The only account he gives of their fate is that ‘God gave them over, with their abettors, into King Alexander’s hand; and thus the land was no longer troubled by their lawlessness.’[[724]] In the following year, while the king was keeping his birthday at Forfar, John, earl of Caithness, who was son of Earl Harald the elder, came to him there and purchased back a part of his earldom which the king had taken from him the previous year on account of his having been supposed to be privy to the outrage committed by the people of Caithness on their bishop, Adam, whom they had burned in his own house.[[725]]
A.D. 1235.
Revolt in Galloway.
Galloway appears to have been still a constant source of disquiet to the kingdom. Alan, the son of Roland, lord of Galloway and Constable of Scotland, died in the year 1234, leaving three daughters, who were married to Norman barons, and one son, considered illegitimate, who during his father’s lifetime had married the daughter of the king of Man. The Norman barons divided the territory between them; ‘but,’ we are told in the Chronicle of Melrose, ‘the inhabitants of that land preferring one master rather than several, went to our lord the king with the request that he himself would accept the lordship of that inheritance, but the king was too just to do this. Thereupon the Gallwegians were angry above measure, and prepared for war. Moreover, they devastated with fire and sword some of the royal lands contiguous to themselves,’ and the king resolved to make a final effort to reduce it entirely to obedience.
‘In the following year our lord the king,’ says the chronicler, ‘mustered an army, and entered Galloway. Having reached a spot convenient for the purpose, he determined there to pitch his tents, for the day was now drawing towards evening. The Gallwegians, however, who had all day been hiding among the mountains, knew the place better, and, trusting to their local acquaintance with its difficulties, offered the king battle. In truth, the place was filled with bogs, which were covered over with grass and flowers, amongst which the larger portion of the royal army had involved itself. At the beginning of the battle the earl of Ross, called Makintagart, came up and attacked the enemies in the rear, and as soon as they perceived this they took to flight, and retreated into the woods and mountains, but they were followed up by the earl and several others, who put many of them to the sword, and harassed them as long as daylight lasted. On the next day the king, acting upon his accustomed humanity, extended his peace to as many as came to him, and so the surviving Gallwegians, with ropes round their necks, accepted his offer.’[[726]]
The illegitimate son of Alan, lord of Galloway, however, Thomas, went over to Ireland with Gilrodh, who incited him to his rebellion, and was no doubt the Gilleroth, son of Gillemartin, who appears among the followers of Gillescop Mahohegan, from whence he soon after returned, bringing with him a fleet and a body of Irish, with the son of one of their chieftains. ‘The Scots,’ we are told, ‘fled before him, and in their hasty flight arrived at a piece of water, in which many perished by means of that accursed army;’ but the bishop of Galloway and the abbot of Melrose, as soon as they heard of it, went, accompanied by the earl of Dunbar and his troops, to the district of Galloway, and informed Gilrodh that he must either make his submission to the king, or engage the earl’s army in battle. Perceiving his inferiority in numbers, Gilrodh followed their advice, and the king placed him for some time in the custody of the before-mentioned earl. Being thus deprived of all counsel and assistance, the bastard was obliged to sue for the king’s peace. He was imprisoned for a short time in Edinburgh Castle, and then the king gave him his freedom; and we hear no more of any resistance to the royal authority in this quarter, and they seem to have acquiesced in their incorporation into the kingdom.
A.D. 1249.
Attempt to reduce the Sudreys, and death of the king at Kerrera.
There now remained but one object to be accomplished to complete the amalgamation of the different outlying provinces of the kingdom occupied by a Celtic population, and that was to wrest the possession of the Western Isles from the kingdom of Norway. Alexander first attempted to obtain the islands by treaty, and sent two of his bishops to Hakon, king of Norway, to ascertain if he would voluntarily surrender the islands as having been unjustly wrested from the Scottish crown by Magnus Barefoot; but Hakon refused, on the ground that Magnus had won them from Godred, king of the Isles, and that his right to the Isles had been confirmed by the king of Scots. The king then proposed to purchase the Isles, but this likewise was refused; and though the negotiations were frequently renewed, the Scots received no other answer.[[727]] In the year 1249, however, Harald, son of Olave, the Norwegian king of Man and the Isles, died, and was succeeded by his brother Reginald, who began to reign in the Isle of Man on the sixth of May, and was slain on the thirteenth of the same month near Russin, in the Isle of Man. The succession was then claimed by Harald, son of Godred Don, whose father was brother of Olave, the father of the slain king.[[728]] Alexander seems to have considered this a favourable opportunity to endeavour to obtain the Isles by force of arms, and having collected forces throughout all Scotland, he prepared for a voyage to the Hebrides, and determined to subdue these islands under his dominion. According to the Saga, he declared ‘that he would not desist till he had set his standard east on the cliffs of Thurso, and had reduced under himself all the provinces which the Norwegian monarch possessed to the westward of the German Ocean.’[[729]] With this view he sent to one of the island kings of the family of Somerled, and appointed a meeting with him in the islands, when he endeavoured to persuade him to renounce his allegiance to King Hakon, and to surrender to him the castle of Cairnburgh, in the Treshinish Isles, on the west coast of Mull, and three other castles, but without success, and the further prosecution of his enterprise was arrested by death. He was seized with severe illness, and having been carried to the island of Kerrera, on the coast of Lorn, he died there. The Scottish army then broke up, and removed the king’s body to Scotland. The Saga reports that the king had seen a vision while lying in the Sound of Kerrera, in which Saint Olave of Norway, Saint Magnus of Orkney, and Saint Columba appeared to him, and prophesied evil to him if he would not abandon his purpose;[[730]] but how Saint Columba, whose successors had suffered such evils at the hands of the Northmen, should have appeared in such company is not explained.