Owen the Bald

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Owen II (Latin: Eugenius; Old Gaelic: Eógan; Modern Gaelic Eòghann; Modern Welsh: Owain), also known by his Latin-derived nickname, Eugenius Calvus or Owen the Bald, was ruler of the Kingdom of Strathclyde for some period in the early eleventh century.

Owen was present, according to Symeon of Durham, at the Battle of Carham in 1018. There is no direct evidence that he died at that battle,[1] but the Welsh Annals record that a "Eugein son of Dumnagual" died 82 years before 1097, i.e. in the year 1015.[2] Nothing else is said of this character, but it is often assumed to be Owen of Strathclyde, and the entry is routinely taken as a mistake for 1018 in order to make Owen the Bald a casualty of the battle.[3]

Owen's supposed death at Carham in 1018 is sometimes taken to be the end of the Kingdom of Strathclyde, and it is for this reason that Owen is perhaps the best-known Strathclyde monarch. However, more recent research has shown this to be flawed, that this idea is routed in the flaws of John Fordun, and that the Kingdom may very well have survived until the reign of King David I of Scotland, who took the Scottish throne in 1124.[4] The next known ruler of "Strathclyde" (that is, king of the Cumbrians) is Máel Coluim II.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Symeon of Durham, Historia Regum Angliae, in T. Arnold (ed.) Symeonis Dunelmensis Opera Omnia, (Rolls Series, 1882), vol. ii, pp. 155-56; translated and quoted in Alan Orr Anderson, Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers: AD 500–1286, (London, 1908), republished, Marjorie Anderson (ed.) (Stamford, 1991), p. 82.
  2. ^ Alan Orr Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500–1286, 2 Vols, (Edinburgh, 1922), vol. i, p. 550.
  3. ^ e.g. 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), pp. 16-7.
  4. ^ Archibald Duncan, The Kingship of the Scots 842–1292: Succession and Independence, (Edinburgh, 2002), pp. 38-41; Richard Oram, David I: The King who made Scotland, (Gloucestershire, 2004); Dauvit Broun, "The Welsh Identity of the Kingdom of Strathclyde", in The Innes Review, Vol. 55, no. 2 (Autumn, 2004), pp. 33-40.

[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)
  • Broun, Dauvit, "The Welsh Identity of the Kingdom of Strathclyde", in The Innes Review, Vol. 55, no. 2 (Autumn, 2004), pp. 111-80
  • Duncan, A.A.M. The Kingship of the Scots 842–1292: Succession and Independence, (Edinburgh, 2002)
  • 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, David I: The King who made Scotland, (Gloucestershire, 2004)
  • Smyth, Alfred, Warlords and Holy Men, (Edinburgh, 1984)


Regnal titles
Preceded by
Máel Coluim I		 King of Strathclyde
fl. 1018		 Succeeded by
?Máel Coluim II