See also
| Husband: | Somerled + (1113-1164) | |
| Wife: | Ragnhild + OLAFSDATTER (1117- ) | |
| Children: | Dugall MAC SOMHAIRLE (1145-1192) | |
| Rognvald + SUMARLIDASSON (1148-1207) | ||
| Aonghas MAC SOMHAIRLE (1150-1210) | ||
| Olav MAC SOMHAIRLE (c. 1152- ) | ||
| Bethag nic SOMHAIRLE (c. 1154- ) | ||
| Name: | Somerled + | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Father: | Gillebride + (1080- ) | |
| Mother: | - | |
| Birth | 1113 | Morven, Argyleshire, Scotland |
| Occupation | King of the Isles | |
| Title | King of the Isles | |
| Death | 1 Jan 1164 (age 50-51) | Renfrew, Scotland |
| Name: | Ragnhild + OLAFSDATTER | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Father: | Olaf I + GODREDSSON (1080-1153) | |
| Mother: | Ingeborg + HAKONSDATTER (1106- ) | |
| Birth | 1117 | Isle of Man |
| Name: | Dugall MAC SOMHAIRLE | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Birth | 1145 | |
| Death | 1192 (age 46-47) | |
| Name: | Rognvald + SUMARLIDASSON | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Spouse: | Fonia + of MORAY (1145- ) | |
| Birth | 1148 | Morven, Argyleshire, Scotland |
| Occupation | Lord of the Isles | |
| Title | Lord of the Isles | |
| Death | 1207 (age 58-59) | Kintyre, Argyleshire, Scotland |
| Name: | Aonghas MAC SOMHAIRLE | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Birth | 1150 | |
| Death | 1210 (age 59-60) | |
| Name: | Olav MAC SOMHAIRLE | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Birth | 1152 (est) | |
| Name: | Bethag nic SOMHAIRLE | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Birth | 1154 (est) | |
| Occupation | Prioress of St. Ronan | |
Somerled (Old Norse: Sumarliðr, Scottish Gaelic: Somhairle, commonly Anglicized from Gaelic as Sorley) was a military and political leader of the Scottish Isles in the 12th century who was known in Gaelic as rí Innse Gall ("King of the Hebrides"). His father was Gillebride. The name, a common one amongst the Vikings, means summer traveller and is a kenning for Viking.[1]
Somerled first appears in historical chronicles in the year 1140[citation needed] as the regulus, or King, of Kintyre (Cinn Tìre) when he marries Raghnailt the daughter of Olaf (or Amhlaibh), King of Mann and the Isles. The year 1153 saw the deaths of two kings: David I of Scotland and Olaf of Mann. There was much confusion and discord as a result and Somerled took his chance—making offensive moves against both Scotland and Mann and the Isles, the latter having been inherited from Olaf by Somerled's brother-in-law, Goraidh mac Amhlaibh.
A summoning was sent, from Thorfin the most powerful jarl of the Hebrides, to Somerled Dougal—Somerled's own son by his wife, the daughter of the Manx king—to move so he might be "King over the Isles". In 1156 Goraidh was defeated in battle against 80 ships of Somerled's fleet and the two enemies partitioned the isles between them. Goraidh kept the islands north of Ardnamurchan with Somerled gaining the rest. However, two years following this Somerled returned to the Isle of Man with 53 warships. He defeated Goraidh again and this time forced him to flee to Norway. Somerled's kingdom now stretched from the Isle of Man to the Butt of Lewis.
Thus both Viking and Scot formed one people under a single lord and came to share a single culture, one way of life—they were to become a powerful and noted race known as the Gall-Gaidheal, literally meaning 'Foreign-Gaels'. It was upon the seas their power was situated under the rule of the Kings of the Isles yet new enemies arose in the east.
[edit] Invasion and deathThe Stuarts made inroads in the west coast and eventually Somerled assembled a sizeable army to repel them. He landed an invasion fleet on the shore of the Clyde near Inchinnan and advanced towards Renfrew and the centre of the Stewarts' territory, where a battle was fought in 1164. Much confusion surrounds the manner of the battle, and indeed whether a battle occurred at all, but what is certain is that Somerled was killed, either assassinated in his tent as he camped[2] or from a spear wound suffered in an early phase of the battle.[3] The leaderless fleet then retreated from the area.
[edit] LegacyFollowing the death of Somerled several powerful lords emerged from within his kingdom. The lordship was contested by two main families; that of Somerled and his descendants and that of the descendants of Goraidh mac Amhlaibh. During the 12th and 13th centuries the Scandinavian world saw much change in methods of rule and administration which ultimately resulted in more strongly centralized, unified kingdoms such as Denmark and Norway. However, this did not happen in the Kingdom of the Isles, which was instead absorbed into the greater Kingdom of Scotland, albeit its place in that state and the loyalty of its inhabitants to the King of Scots would remain peripheral and temperamental for centuries to come.
In 2005 a study by Professor of Human Genetics Bryan Sykes of Oxford led him to the conclusion that Somerled has possibly 500,000 living descendants—making him the second most common currently-known ancestor after Genghis Khan. He subsequently wrote that Roughly a quarter of Macdonalds, a third of McDougalls, and 40 percent of Macalisters are direct paternal descendents of Somerled ... it has been estimated that there are there are 200,000 men who carry Somerled's Y-chromosome as proof of their descent from the man who drove the Norse from the Isles.[4] Sykes's research led him to conclude that Somerled was a member of the Y-DNA R1a1 Haplogroup, sometimes considered the marker of Viking descent among men of deep British or Scottish ancestry.[5] [1] [2] Sykes' work has not been peer-reviewed, however it has been published. [3]
[edit] FamilyMain article: Clann Somhairle
By his first wife, who is unknown, their children were:
Somhairle Og mac Somhairle
Gillecallum mac Somhairle b. c 1135, Killed in battle in 1164 during Battle of Renfrew.
He also fathered:
Gillies mac Somhairle
Gall mac Somhairle
By his second wife, Ragnhildis Ólafsdóttir, daughter of Olaf I Godredsson, King of Mann and the Isles and Ingeborg Haakonsdottir daughter of Haakon Paulsson, Earl of Orkney, their children were:
Dugall mac Somhairle (c. 1145 – c. 1192)
Reginald mac Somhairle (c. 1148–1207)
Aonghas mac Somhairle (c. 1150–1210)
Olav mac Somhairle
Bethag nic Somhairle, St Ronan’s first prioress.