(The area around Ronaldsway, at the south end of the Isle of Man, from the air. Picture from Wikimedia Commons)

Got another battle for you today folks, in keeping with the fact that earlier the Battle of Largs was covered on this blog. That battle, though perhaps not quite so game-changing and pivotal in British history as some sources would have us believe, was still an important moment in the process that saw sovereignty over the islands and western seaboard pass from Norway to the Scottish Crown. With the death of Haakon IV in late 1263, any hopes the Norwegians had of soon resuming their campaign and recouping losses were stymied and King Alexander III quickly capitalised on the situation, sending a force into the Hebrides under the Earl of Buchan and Alan Durward, whose forces simultaneously wreaked devastation and brought home the message of Scottish ascendancy. Hostages were taken for good behaviour and while some of the Hebridean rulers still refused to give into Scottish demands of overlordship, others, including several notable members of the House of Somerled, came into the king of Scotland’s peace more readily.

The story of how the Western Isles were incorporated into the kingdom of Scotland is reasonably well known- or at least the popular, if not wholly accurate and somewhat sanitised, version of the story is more likely to be covered in a Scottish history class than that of the Isle of Man. Nonetheless for a short while this territory also came under the control of the Scottish Crown. At around the same time as Buchan and Durward were sent into the Hebrides, an expedition was also fitted out for the Isle of Man. However, Magnus Olafsson, the King of Man, who was probably quite rightly anxious to avoid a Scottish army being set loose in his own land, pre-empted Alexander’s intervention and met with the king of Scots at Dumfries. There, he did homage and received Alexander’s promise of protection and shelter in Scotland should the king of Norway attempt to take reprisals against him, in return for agreeing to provide military service of ten galleys.



How this new relationship between the kings of Man and Scotland would have panned out in time is impossible to say, as Magnus died at Castle Rushen in late 1265. After this, control of Mann was put in the hands of a succession of royal bailiffs (Lewis and Skye, which were also part of the kingdom of Mann, were put under the control of the Crown and the Earl of Ross respectively) and Alexander’s sovereignty over the island was confirmed by Norway as a result of the Treaty of Perth in 1266. At some point seven hostages were taken for good behaviour as well, and kept by the Sheriff of Dumfries on behalf of the king. To all intents and purposes, Man was to be treated as a possession of the Scottish Crown, whether the Manx liked it or not (this also must have stuck in the throat of the king of England, who lost the opportunity to finally bring Mann under English control as a result of being distracted by domestic strife). However while there was little significant trouble in the Hebrides in the decades after the Treaty of Perth, Man was a different matter and not only were the baillies unpopular, but in general the island’s loss of autonomy and subjugation to the Scottish Crown did not go down well. And thus we are brought to the autumn of 1275, when that simmering discontent came to a head and the Manxmen rose in revolt.

(A seal of Alexander III of Scotland, last king of the House of Dunkeld)



The leader of this movement was Guðrøðr Magnusson (name may also be rendered as Godfrey or Godred), an illegitimate son of the late Magnus, who appears to have been viewed by the majority of the Manx political community as the right man to succeed his father. Quickly gathering support, he soon seized the main castles and strongholds on the island, turfing out the Scots there, and making a bid to reestablish the primacy of the Crovan dynasty. Members of this kindred had ruled in Mann since at least the twelfth century, though at other times their power also extended to the Outer Hebrides, especially Lewis (their main competitors, meanwhile, were the branches of the Mac Somhairle clan in the Inner Hebrides and Argyll- who gave rise to the MacDonalds, MacDougalls, and MacRuaidhris- whose members had occasionally also ruled in Mann). But Godred’s attempts to claim the kingship of Mann that his ancestors once held, naturally aroused the wrath of Alexander III, who immediately acted to prevent the situation getting any further out of hand.

Having raised a force from Galloway and the Hebrides, a fleet was soon on its way south to Mann, landing at Ronaldsway on the south side of the island on the seventh of October. Its leaders were King Alexander’s second cousin John de Vesci, lord of Alnwick; John ‘the Black’ Comyn, lord of Badenoch; Alexander MacDougall lord of Argyll, whose sister had been married to the late Magnus Olafsson; Alan MacRuairi, who twelve years earlier had raided the west coast of Scotland on behalf of Hakon IV of Norway; and Alan, a son of the Earl of Atholl and grandson to Roland/Lachlan of Galloway. Of these the last had already been one of the Crown’s bailiffs of Mann, while two more- MacDougall and MacRuairi- belonged to two of the most prominent septs of the House of Somerled, and their role in the suppression of the Manx revolt says a lot about Alexander’s new power in the Hebrides and on the west coast of the Scottish mainland (nevertheless, Alan MacRuairi’s older brother Dubhgall, the head of the MacRuairis, remained in rebellion and had taken himself off to plunder Ireland a few years before, so not everyone was wholly happy with the situation in the Hebrides, even if it was more accepted than in Mann). Meanwhile the ability to raise men in the Hebrides and Galloway was a testament to the strength of the campaigns of Alexander III and his father respectively in those parts, and the Hebridean galleys were a strong addition to the naval power of the Scottish Crown, which had already shown its ability to exploit the advantages of the galley in its earlier campaigns in the west.

Sources for the Manx side of things are even less informative, though for all his early success Guðrøðr’s force does not seem to have been anywhere near as well-equipped as its enemy. When the Scots landed on the seventh, they sent a peace embassy to offer terms if the Manx surrendered, but Guðrøðr and his counsellors firmly rejected this option. Early the next day- the eighth of October- battle was joined before the sun was even in the sky. It is perhaps rather disappointing, given all the lead-up, that Guðrøðr’s short rebellion ended so swiftly and that the skirmish can be summed up in a few sentences, but the sources, though unfortunately short, make it clear that Ronaldsway was an overwhelming defeat for the Manxmen. Accounts of the battle describe the latter as being ‘naked and unarmed’ and they were almost immediately beaten back by the crossbowmen, archers, and other soldiers of the Scots. Very soon they turned and fled, with the Scots in hot pursuit, cutting down any they could catch and not stopping to spare people on account of sex or rank, to the result that over five hundred are alleged to have died in the battle itself. As Ronaldsway is, even today, very close to the important settlement of Castletown (so named for Castle Rushen, then the main political centre of the island), the flight of the Manx brought the Scots into contact with non-combatants and, both in the chase and after the battle was technically over, the invaders brought destruction to the area. As well as slaying many, they are also supposed to have sacked Rushen Abbey, a significant foundation of the Crovan dynasty and a hugely important religious centre for the Isle of Man.

The Chronicle of Man provided a versified toll of the dead:

‘Ten L’s, three X’s, with five and two to fall,



Manxmen take care lest future evils call.’

Or, in Latin:

‘L decies, X ter et penta, duo cecidere,



Mannica gens de te dampua futura cave.’

(Castle Rushen, in the thirteenth century the main political centre of the Isle of Man, and not far from Ronaldsway. Not my picture.)



Scottish control was quickly- and brutally- reestablished over Mann, while Guðrøðr, is supposed to have fled to Wales with his wife and followers. He was not to be the last of the Crovan dynasty to lay claim to Mann, but for the rest of Alexander III’s reign the island does not appear to have caused any significant trouble. To the Scottish Crown this settled the matter and the young Prince Alexander, son of the Scottish king, was named lord of Man until his early death in 1284, though it is doubtful if he ever played much active role in its governance and the real administration of the island was once again placed in the hands of bailiffs.

However, some historians argue that the aftermath of the Battle of Ronaldsway, since it can hardly have inspired positive feelings towards Scotland, may have promoted the further growth of an anti-Scottish faction in the Manx political community. When Margaret- the infant daughter of Eric II of Norway and granddaughter of Alexander III- inherited the throne of Scotland upon the death of her maternal grandfather in 1286, she also succeeded to the title Lady of Mann. However, when her great-uncle Edward I of England annexed the island a little while before her premature death in September of 1290, nobody on the Isle of Man appears to have complained. After all, the Battle of Ronaldsway- and the destruction that followed- had only occurred fifteen years before, and even prior to that the majority of the Manx had not shown any particular enthusiasm for Scottish sovereignty. The territory was formally restored to King John by Edward I in 1293, though quite some time after the rest of the Scottish realm, and was to pass back and forth between Scotland and England for several more decades, but after the mid-fourteenth century Scottish claims to Mann were largely abandoned and at the end of the century it formally came under English control. The Crovan dynasty, however, would never again hold the title Kings of Mann.

(References below cut)

The Furness continuation of William of Newburgh’s ‘Historia Reru Anglicarum’ in ‘Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard’, ed. Richard Howlett



The Chronicle of Man in ‘Monumenta de Insula Manniae, or a Collection of National Documents Relating to the Isle of Man’, transl. and ed. J. R. Oliver

‘Early Sources of Scottish History’, A.O. Anderson



John of Fordun’s ‘Chronica Gentis Scotorum’, ed. by W. F. Skene

‘Kingship and Unity: Scotland 1000-1306′, G.W.S. Barrow



‘The Kingdom of the Isles: Scotland’s Western Seaboard, c. 1100- c.1336′, R. Andrew MacDonald

“The Wars of Scotland, 1214-1371″, by Michael Brown

