Somerled And The History Of Scotland

Scotland's Internet included A Short History of Scotland, by Andrew Lang (1844-1912) excerpted below:

Chapter VI.  MALCOLM THE MAIDEN.

The prominent facts in the brief reign of David’s son Malcolm the Maiden, crowned (1153) at the age of eleven, were, first, a Celtic rising by Donald, a son of Malcolm MacHeth (now a prisoner in Roxburgh Castle), and a nephew of the famous Somerled Macgillebride of Argyll.  Somerled won from the Norse the Isle of Man and the Southern Hebrides; from his sons descend the great Macdonald Lords of the Isles, always the leaders of the long Celtic resistance to the central authority in Scotland.  Again, Malcolm resigned to Henry II. of England the northern counties held by David I.; and died after subduing Galloway, and (on the death of Somerled, said to have been assassinated) the tribes of the isles in 1165.


Nigel Tranter's novel, Lord of the Isles, was based upon the life of Somerled Macgillebride and included his nephew Donald and the others mentioned above.