Máel Coluim I of Strathclyde

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Máel Coluim I of Strathclyde was ruler of the Kingdom of Strathclyde, the probable son of one of his predecessors King Domnall III of Strathclyde, and brother of his immediate predecessor King Amdarch of Strathclyde.

Máel Coluim was king of the Cumbrians by 973, the year for which Florence of Worcester related the Strathclyde king had met King Edgar of England at Chester.^[1] Máel Coluim was one of eight kings who allegedly met Edgar and rowed his boat on the River Dee (Afon Dyfrdwy). Another of the kings supposedly present was king Kenneth II of Scotland, and a "Maccus, king of very many islands";^[2] of the eight kings listed, only these three Scotland-related kings have their kingdoms named.^[3]

Máel Coluim I's existence is confirmed by one other source. The Irish annals give Máel Coluim's father as Domnall, and a death date of 997. The Annals of Ulster reported his obiturary as Mael Coluim m. Domnaill, ri Bretan Tuaiscirt, moritur (i.e. "Máel Coluim, son of Domnall, King of the Britons of the North, dies").^[4] The father is presumed to be King Domnall III of Strathclyde, making king Amdarch of Strathclyde his brother.^[5] The latter was reigning in 971,^[6] so if Amdarch ruled on his own, he could not have done so before that date.

[edit] Notes

^ Alan Orr Anderson, Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers: AD 500–1286, (London, 1908), republished, Marjorie Anderson (ed.) (Stamford, 1991), p. 76-7.
^ loc. cit.
^ Florence was writing in the early twelfth century, when the King of the English was enjoying overlordship over Scotland and the other sub-kingdoms of northern Britain and the islands; see Richard Oram, The Lordship of Galloway, (Edinburgh, 2000), pp. 62-74; for Macht Haraldsson as a suggestion for Maccus, see ibid., p. 10.
^ Annals of Ulster, s.a. 997.5, here
^ Alan MacQuarrie, "The Kings of Strathclyde", in A. Grant & K.Stringer (eds.) Medieval Scotland: Crown, Lordship and Community, Essays Presented to G.W.S. Barrow, (Edinburgh, 1993), p. 16.
^ See, for instance, Alan Orr Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500–1286, 2 Vols, (Edinburgh, 1922), vol. i, p. 476-7; see also, Alan MacQuarrie, loc. cit..

[edit] References

Anderson, Alan Orr, Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500–1286, 2 Vols, (Edinburgh, 1922)
Anderson, Alan Orr, Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers: AD 500–1286, (London, 1908), republished, Marjorie Anderson (ed.) (Stamford, 1991)
MacQuarrie, Alan, "The Kings of Strathclyde", in A. Grant & K.Stringer (eds.) Medieval Scotland: Crown, Lordship and Community, Essays Presented to G.W.S. Barrow, (Edinburgh, 1993), pp. 1-19
Oram, Richard, The Lordship of Galloway, (Edinburgh, 2000)