King of the Isles, Lord of Argyll, Lord of Kinytre
Ragnall mac Somairle (also known in Gaelic as "Raghnall", "Raonall", "Raonull"; in English as "Ranald"; in Latin as "Reginaldus"; and in Old Norse as "Rögnvaldr", "Røgnvaldr", "Rǫgnvaldr"; died 1191/1192 – c. 1210/1227) was a significant late-twelfth-century magnate, seated on the western seaboard of Scotland. He was probably a younger son of Somairle mac Gilla Brigte, Lord of Argyll and his wife, Ragnhildr, daughter of Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles. The twelfth-century Kingdom of the Isles, ruled by Ragnall's father and maternal grandfather, existed within a hybrid Norse-Gaelic milieu, which bordered an ever-strengthening and consolidating Kingdom of Scots.
In the mid-twelfth century, Somairle rose in power and won the Kingdom of the Isles from his brother-in-law. After Somairle perished in battle against the Scots in 1164, much of his kingdom was probably partitioned between his surviving sons. Ragnall's allotment appears to have been in the southern Hebrides and Kintyre. In time, Ragnall appears to have risen in power and became the leading member of Somairle's descendants, the meic Somairle (or Clann Somairle). Ragnall is known to have styled himself "King of the Isles, Lord of Argyll and Kintyre" and "Lord of the Isles". His claim to the title of king, like other members of the meic Somairle, is derived through Ragnhildr, a member of the Crovan dynasty.
Ragnall disappears from record after he and his sons were defeated by his brother Áengus. Ragnall's death date is unknown, although certain dates between 1191 and 1227 are all possibilities. Surviving contemporary sources reveal that Ragnall was a significant patron of the Church. Although his father appears to have aligned himself with traditional forms of Christianity, Ragnall himself is associated with newer reformed religious orders from the continent. Ragnall's now non-existent seal, which pictured a knight on horseback, also indicates that he attempted to present himself as an up-to-date ruler, not unlike his Anglo-French contemporaries of the bordering Kingdom of Scots.
Ragnall is known to have left two sons, Ruaidrí and Domnall, who went on to found powerful Hebridean families. Either Ragnall or Ruaidrí had daughters who married Ragnall's first cousins Rǫgnvaldr and Óláfr, two thirteenth-century kings of the Crovan dynasty.
Origins of the meic Somairle.
Ragnall was a son of Somairle mac Gilla Brigte, Lord of Argyll (died 1164) and his wife, Ragnhildr, daughter of Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles. Somairle and Ragnhildr had at least three sons: Dubgall (died after 1175), Ragnall, Áengus (died 1210), and probably also a fourth, Amlaíb. Dubgall appears to have been the couple's eldest son. Little is certain of the origins of Ragnall's father, although his marriage suggests that he belonged to a family of some substance. In the first half of the twelfth century, the Hebrides and the Isle of Man (Mann) were encompassed within the Kingdom of the Isles, which was ruled by Somairle's father-in-law, a member of the Crovan dynasty. Somairle's rise to power may well have begun at about this time, as the few surviving sources from the era suggest that Argyll may have begun to slip from the control of David I, King of Scots (died 1153).
Somairle first appears on record in 1153, when he rose in rebellion with his nephews, the sons of the royal pretender Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair (fl. 1134), against the recently enthroned Máel Coluim IV, King of Scots (died 1165). In the same year, Somairle's father-in-law was murdered after ruling the Kingdom of the Isles about forty years. Óláfr was succeeded by his son, Guðrøðr; and sometime afterwards, Somairle participated in a coup within the kingdom by presenting Dubgall as a potential king. In consequence, Somairle and his brother-in-law fought a naval battle in 1156, after which much of the Hebrides appear to have fallen under Somairle's control. Two years later, he defeated Guðrøðar outright and took control of the entire island-kingdom. In 1164, Somairle again rose against the King of Scots, and is recorded in various early sources to have commanded a massive invasion force of men from throughout the Isles, Argyll, Kintyre and Scandinavian Dublin. Somairle's host sailed up the Clyde, and made landfall near what is today Renfrew, where they were crushed by the Scots, and he himself was slain. Following Somairle's demise, Guðrøðr returned to the Isles and seated himself on Mann, although the Hebridean-territories won by Somairle in 1156 were retained by his descendants, the meic Somairle.
Although contemporary sources are silent on the matter, it is more than likely that on Somairle's demise, his territory was divided amongst his surviving sons. The precise allotment of lands is unknown; even though the division of lands amongst later generations of meic Somairle can be readily discerned, such boundaries are unlikely to have existed during the chaotic twelfth century. It is possible that the territory of the first generation of meic Somairle may have stretched from Glenelg in the north, to the Mull of Kintyre in the south; with Áengus ruling in the north, Dubgall centred in Lorne (with possibly the bulk of the inheritance), and Ragnall in Kintyre and the southern islands.
Internal conflict.
Little is known of Somairle's descendants in the decades following his demise. Dubgall does not appear on record until 1175, when he is attested far from the Isles in Durham, by the Durham Cathedral's "Liber Vitae". Nothing is certain of Dubgall's later activities, and it is possible that, by the 1180s, Ragnall had begun to encroach upon Dubgall's territories and his position as head of the meic Somairle. The fact that Dubgall is not accorded any title by the "Liber Vitae" could be evidence that Ragnall had displaced him upon Somairle's demise, or that the chronicle's account of Dubgall's connection with the kingship is merely the work of thirteenth-century bias favouring the powerful meic Dubgaill, Dubgaill's descendants.
In 1192, the "Chronicle of Mann" records that Ragnall and his sons were defeated in a particularly bloody battle against Áengus. The chronicle does not identify the location of the battle, or elaborate under what circumstances it was fought. However, it is possible that the conflict took place in the northern part of the meic Somairle domain, where some of Áengus' lands may have lain. Although the hostile contact between Ragnall and Áengus could have been result of Ragnall's rise in power at Dubgall's expense, the clash of 1192 may also mark Ragnall's downfall.
One of several ecclesiastical sources that deal specifically with Ragnall is an undated grant to the Cluniac priory at Paisley. Since this grant probably dates to the period after Ragnall's defeat to Áengus, it may be evidence of an attempt made by Ragnall to secure an alliance with Alan fitz Walter, Steward of Scotland (died 1204). The patrons of this priory were members of Alan's own family, a powerful kindred that had recently begun to expand its influence westwards from Renfrew, to the frontier of the Scottish realm and the fringes of Argyll. Since Bute seems to have fallen into the hands of this kindred at about the time of Ragnall's grant, it is possible that Alan took advantage of the internal conflict between the meic Somairle, and seized the island before 1200. Alternately, Alan may have received the island from Ragnall as payment for military support against Áengus, who appears to have gained the upper hand over Ragnall by 1192. Alan's expansion and influence in territories outwith the bounds of the Scottish kingdom may have been perceived as a threat by William I, King of Scots (died 1214), and may partly explain the king's construction of a royal castle at Ayr in 1195. This fortress extended Scottish royal authority into the outer Firth of Clyde region, and was probably intended to dominate not only William's peripheral barons, but also independent rulers just beyond the borders of the Scottish realm. In fact, Alan's westward expansion appears to have suddenly ceased at about 1200, and may have been a consequence of royal anxiety concerning an alliance with Ragnall.
Titles and seal.
A royal inspection of Saddell Abbey, dated to 1508, reveals that Ragnall styled himself in a Latin charter to the abbey "rex insularum, dominus de Ergile et Kyntyre" ("King of the Isles, Lord of Argyll and Kintyre"), a title which may indicate that Ragnall claimed all the possessions of his father. In what is probably a later charter, Ragnall is styled in Latin "dominus de Inchegal" ("Lord of the Isles") in his grant to the priory of Paisley. Although Ragnall's abandonment of the title "king" in favour of "lord" may not be significant, it could be connected with his defeat to Áengus, or to the expansion and rise in power of Ragnall's namesake and first cousin Rǫgnvaldr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles (died 1229). The style "dominus de Inchegal" is not unlike "dominus Insularum" ("Lord of the Isles"), a title first adopted in 1336 by Ragnall's great-great-grandson, Eoin Mac Domhnaill, Lord of the Isles (died c. 1387), the first of four successive Lords of the Isles.
Ragnall's grant to the priory of Paisley is preserved in two documents: one dates to the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, and a later copy is contained in an instrument which dates to 1426. Appended to the latter document is a description of a seal impressed in white wax, which the fifteenth-century notary alleged to have belonged to Ragnall. On one side, the seal is described to have depicted a ship, filled with men-at-arms. On the reverse side, the seal was said to have depicted a man on horseback, armed with a sword in his hand.
Ragnall is the only member of the meic Somairle known to have styled himself in documents "rex insularum". His use of both the title and seal are probably derived from those of the leading members of the Crovan dynasty, such as his namesake Rǫgnvaldr, who not only bore the same title but was said to have borne a similar two-sided seal. The descriptions of the cousins' seals shows that these devices combined the imagery of a Norse-Gaelic galley and an Anglo-French knight. The maritime imagery probably symbolised the power of a ruler of an island-kingdom, and the equestrian imagery appears to have symbolised feudal society, in which the cult of knighthood had reached its peak in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. The use of such seals by leading Norse-Gaelic lords, seated on the periphery of the kingdoms of Scotland and England, probably illustrates their desire to present themselves as up-to-date and modern to their contemporaries in Anglo-French society.
Norse-Gaelic namesake.
The Gaelic "Ragnall" corresponds to the Old Norse "Rǫgnvaldr". Both names were Latinised to "Reginaldus". The fact that two closely related Hebridean rulers, Ragnall and Rǫgnvaldr, shared the same personal names, the same grandfather, and (at times) the same title, has perplexed modern historians and possibly mediaeval chroniclers as well.
Conquest in Caithness.
A particular thorn in the side of the Scottish Crown at the turn of the thirteenth century was Haraldr Maddaðarson, Earl of Orkney and Caithness (died 1206). At some point in the last half of the twelfth century, Haraldr put aside his first wife, a daughter of an Earl of Fife, and married Hvarflǫð, a daughter of an Earl of Ross. The latter woman was a member of the powerful meic Áedha, a northern kindred who had been in open conflict with the Scottish Crown throughout the twelfth century. Previous Orcadian earls had extended influence into Ross, and it may well have been through Hvarflǫð, and the claims to the earldom that she passed to their children, that drew Haraldr into conflict with the Scots.
Howden's account of events reveals that Haraldr and his family gained control of Moray early in 1196, and charter evidence suggests that William and royal forces were in the north that summer. Although the "Chronicle of Melrose" appears to indicate that Hvarflǫð and Haraldr's eldest son was defeated in 1197, it is possible that this event dates to 1196 instead and relates to William's aforesaid northern campaign. Fordun's account records that William successfully asserted royal power in the northern regions; and Howden's account species that the king stripped Haraldr of his lordship in Caithness, and handed it over to Haraldr Eiríksson, a claimant to the Orcadian earldom. At some point after this, Howden's account reveals that Haraldr overcame and killed Haraldr Eiríksson, and the Icelandic Annals specifically date the latter's fall to