Medieval Scottish History

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Scottish History Timeline: 9th to 12th Centuries

866-910 AD: Haraldr hárfagri conquers kingdoms in Norway and Värmland, Sweden. His opponents flee to Iceland, Faroe Islands, Scotland’s Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands, Hebrides Islands and Scotland itself. Red Thortsen, ruler of Caithness, Sutherland, Ross & Moray, assasinated by Olaf the Dane. Constantine Mac Kenneth beheaded by the Danes at Fife. Successor Aedh murdered and the crown passes to Eocha and his brother Giric of Strathclyde. 872: Battle of Hafrsfjord Haraldr proclaims himself Harald I, First King of Norway, seizes Orkney and the Western Isles. Marcus-Gilledomman Lord of the Isles expelled to Ireland. Bishop Asser appoints Ætheldred (Alfred) of England overlord of the South Welsh Kings. Danelaw: Danish part of England. East and North. Non-Danish under Ætheldred Battle of Engle-field / Battle of Reading / Æscesdun: Ashton: King Anarawd of Gwynedd [White Grain Province], Wales attacks Mercia [Sea Province] where Ætheldred armies are, seeking an alliance with the Norse Kings of York. Battle of Edington: Norse King Basrig invades Wessex with King Halden / Halfdene of Denmark and is slain. Donald II killed by the Danes who ravage Dunblane and conquer Northumbria. Eocha and Giric deposed. Ætheldred dies in 899 and Eadweard takes over. Vikings expelled from Ireland and invade England. 30,000 Normans in 700 ships sail up the Seine; Comte Eudes defends Paris.
916-945 AD: Saxon Athelstan seizes Northumbria, abducts the Queen and thirty three members of her court, and invades Scotland by sea and land. He defeats Scots, north Welsh and Norse at Brunanbur. Olaf Son of Sihtric, no longer king of Northumbria, flees to Ireland. Eadward dies in 924 and son Ethelweard rules for 16 days before being assasinated by half-brother Athelstan. Cornwall becomes an earldom of Wessex under King Athelstan after he kills the last Cornish king. The Welsh Kings sign away their land in English Land Charters. and are forced to join the English army against Scotland. King Hywel Dda: Howel the Good of Deheubarth, Wales writes down the laws. Plague Hits. Battle of Brunanbury: King Constantine II of Scotland enters a monastery and reliquishes the crown to Malcolm MacDonald. Malcolm I, Malcolm Mac Donald, kills King Cellach.
945-975 AD: Saxons promise Strathclyde to Malcolm if he will aid them in the military. He agrees, lays waste the territories of the Angles up to the river Tees, and is slain. Successor Dubh assasinated in his bedroom. His successor Culean assasinated by the Britons. Norwegians withdraw from mainland. The Danes plunder Iona. Athelstan’s brother Edred dies childless. Athelstan’s half-sister Eadgyth marries King Otto I, a Saxon chief who becomes Holy Roman Emperor Otto I of Germany. Half-sister Eadgifu marries King Charles III of France, half-brother of the last Holy Roman Emperor & King of France Carloman who had died in 884. Aethelred the Unready, King of England, invades Scotland and is defeated. Mercenary soldiers seize Waterford. Olaf’s brother Guthfrith [Godfrey] seizes Dublin, plunders Cenannas & Domnach Pátraic.
International:960: General Zhao Kuangyin serves as the first Emperor of the Chinese Song Dynasty. The introduction of early ripening rice makes it possible to grow two or three crops a year in the south. Increased rice production supports the population, which for the first time exceeds 100 million. Other Chinese inventions during the period include: gunpowder, movable type for printing, hard-glazed porcelains, landscape paintings. 962 AD: Sacrum Romanum Imperium Nationis Germanicæ: The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation: Das Heiliges Römischen Reich begins with Eadgyth & Otto I. Becoming a Holy Roman Emperor required becoming a Deutscher König: King of the Germans. Most of the Holy Roman Empire’s rulers were Germans. Until 1508, German kings were not considered Emperors of the Reich until the Pope had formally crowned them. An official designation Rede remained in use for nine centuries. Frankfurt is the site where the emperors were elected and crowned. Mazoria of Theophylact executes Pope John X. Her son conceived after her rape by Pope Sergius III succeeds as Pope John XI. She is executed by her second son Alberic Jr. whose son Octavian, succeeds as Pope John XII in 955. Otto’s brother Henry I, Duke of Bavaria. Otto’s son Liudolf, Duke of Swabia invades Lombardy and dies of fever at Pombia, Novara in 957. Famine of 970: Huge taxes on grain creates record famine on the Rhineland. Bishop Hatto of Bingen invites the poor to his barn under the plea of distributing grain to them; but when the barn is crowded he locks the door and sets fire to the building. Saint Henri II, Saxon emperor of Germany and nephew of Otto, establishes bénédictines abbeys and works with the King of France, Louis the Pious assisting Pope Benoît VIII with reforms. 972: The Fatimid Caliphate, named after the daughter of Muhammad, Fatima az-Zahra, invade Egypt and found a new capital at al-Qahira (Cairo): the Triumphant. They rule an area from Tunisia to Syria until 1171.
975-1034 AD: Athelstan’s nephew Edgar dies soon after being crowned King of England at Bath. Mercenary soldiers destroy everything in their path. The plague spreads and there is famine. Aethelred II takes throne after half-brother Edward the Martyr poisoned with mead and stabbed in the back by Elfrida in 978. Aethelred II establishes the first almshouse, orders the Massacre of the Danes on St Brice Day: Nov 13, 1002 after he marries Emma of Normandy, and flees to Normandy in 1013 when the Danes kill Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury. Hywel Dda’s grandson, Maredudd ab Owain, ruler of Deheubarth and Gwynedd, Wales. Danish King Sweyn Haraldsson crowns himself Sweyn I of England. 1016: Aethereld II dies and Edmund II becomes king after deposing King Harald II of England & Denmark. Edmund II dies that year leaving King Harald II ruler with his mother Queen Emma until 1035. 1018: Inquisition: 144 nobles of Cairbre burned at the stake with the superior of Druim Cliab. Ard Macha is burnt. Gormgal of Ardailén, chief confessor of Ireland dies. Dublin people massacred. Irish revolt and break the staff of Jesus. Mercenary armies destroy Meath, assassinate King Domnall Got of Meath and imprison and kill King Tadc. Kenneth III [Mac Dubh] is slain by Malcolm II in Stratherne. Battle of Carham: Malcolm II defeats the Northumbrians seizes Lothian and Strathclyde.
International: 986 A.D: Bulgarians under Byzantine Emperor Basil II rebel and kill the army. The emperor swears vengeance against the entire Bulgar nation, rebuilds his army and in 1014, defeates the Bulgarian army. He is called Bulgaroctonus, which means slayer of Bulgarians. In 1018, Basil completes the conquest of Bulgaria and makes it part of the Byzantine Empire.
1034-1054 AD: Battle of Clontarf: King Malcolm II kills Lady MacBeth’s son, submits to English rule and is assasinated by his grandson Duncan I. Duncan I is assasinated by MacBeth, King of Moray, and MacBeth takes the Kingship of Scotland. Lady Godiva, wife of earl of Mercia, rides naked through Coventry as a protest against taxes. 1036: The Witan names Harald II’s illegitimate son Harald Harefoot King of England. His mother is Elfgifu of Northampton. Emma of Normandy flees in 1036 to Bruges, in Flanders or Fleanderland “the land of those who fled from Saxony”. Her son Hardacanute and her niece Brunhilda (accused of having opposed Edward the Confessor) join her. Hardacanute remains there until he becomes king of England in 1040. 1039: King Gruffydd ap Llywelyn ap Seisyll takes the Welsh throne of Gwynned and defeats the Mercians at Rhyd-y-Groes Welshpool. 1042: King Edward the Confessor of England, only surviving son of Emma and Aethelred II. Conrad king of the Saxons kills Odo king of the Franks and a thousand Franks. Mercenary armies invade Ireland. Famine hits Ulster. The people try to make it to Leinster and die in the snow. Bishop Ciarán murders the people of Callraige, Ireland.
International: Great Schism: East-West Schism: 1053: Bruno of Eguisheim-Dagsburg: Pope Leo IX and Lombard catepan of Italy, Argyrus are defeated by the Normans at the Battle of Civitate. The pope is imprisoned at Benevento and later dies. When Pope Leo IX dies the 3 legates: Cardinal Humbert of Mourmoutiers, Frederick of Lorraine: Pope Stephen IX (1056-1057 after Pope Victor II né Gebhard, Count of Calw, Tollenstein, and Hirschberg of 1055), Peter Archbishop of Amalfi enter the Church of the Holy Wisdom of the Hagia Sophia during mass on a Saturday afternoon and place a bull of excommunication on the altar.
1054-1071 AD: Malcolm Ceanmore a.k.a Malcolm III, usurps the throne. MacBeth is killed trying to escape. 1055: King Gruffydd ap Llywelyn ap Seisyll rules Gwynned, Deheubarth, Morgannwg and Gwent . 1063: Earl Harold Godwinsson and his brother Tostig attack Gwynedd. Deheubarth rebels. Gruffydd flees and is murdered by his own men. 1066: Edward the Confessor dies. His brother-in-law Earl Harold Godwinson assumes the throne for nine months. Battle of Stamford Bridge: King Harald Hardrada of Norway is killed by Godwinson on September 25. Battle of Hastings: William the Conqueror, Edward’s cousin from Normandy, murders Godwinson and two contenders for the throne. He takes kingship of England and hires a monk named Gundulf to build the Tower of London a.k.a The White Tower, because it was originally whitewashed. Eustace II, Count of Boulogne, descendant of Charlemagne, is pictured in the Bayeux tapestry as one of a group of knights including a son of Guy of Ponthieu, Hugh Giffard and Geoffrey de Montfort killing earl Harold Godwinson. William murders the Saxons of Worchester and his naval force attacks Scotland. [100,000 dead in one day] Malcolm III submits to William and marries Saxon Queen Margaret. The third plague destroys the population. Called the bolgach and tregait, The Triads of Britain calls it the ‘sickness of the bloody sweat, on account of the corn having been destroyed by wet weather in the time of the Norman invasion by William the Bastard.’
1083-1113 AD: Malcolm III slain by William the Conqueror’s oldest son Duke Robert of Normandy. Malcolm’s brother King Donald Ban ascends the Scottish throne. 1086:The Domesday Book: William the Conqueror disposseses remaining Anglo-Saxon nobles of lands. He orders a land survey for tax purposes. 1087: William the Conqueror’s middle son William II Rufus: Red-faced succeeds as King of England. The future Henry I, youngest son of William the Conqueror, invades Normandy. Gruffydd ap Cynan of Wales assasinates Baron Robert of Rhuddlan and resists the Normans with help from the king of Norway. 1093: Normans kill King Rhys ap Tewdwr of Deheubarth-Brycheiniog, Wales. King Cadwgan ap Bleddyn of Powys, rebels against William II. 1094: Year of the plague: Battle of Fidnach: ‘It is not possible to count the people it killed. 46; King Cathal of Síl & Muiredaigh O’Brien [considered the most powerful king in Ireland] murdered in captivity. King Taichlech of Leinster & King Domnall of Tara assasinated & kingdoms plundered. Cluain moccu Nóis monastery laid waste. 1094: King Donald Ban of Scotland deposed by Malcolm’s son Duncan II. Duncan II slain by the Scottish people and Donald is re-instated. 1095: William II crushes a baronial revolt and acquires Normandy from older brother, Robert, by lending him money to go on a crusade. 1100: William II assasinated by Lord Walter Tirel. Younger brother Henry I seizes the Winchester treasury. 1101: Duke Robert of Normandy invades England to claim the throne. 1106: Battle of Tinchebrai: King Henry I invades Normandy and captures Robert at Tinchebrai. Henry I’s two children are William the Aetheling and Holy Roman Empress Matilda.
International: 1096-1099 AD: First Crusade: Crusaders massacre inhabitants of Muslim Jerusalem and regain the coastal regions of the Holy Land. Holy Roman Emperor Henry V marries 11 year old Empress Matilda.
1113-1130 AD: Sybilla of Anjou engaged in 1113 to William the Aetheling, heir to King Henry I, but he is drowned off the coast of Normandy on the ‘Blanche Nef: White Ship’. in 1120. Eadgar Atheling, Margaret’s brother, invades Scotland, takes the kingship, blinds Donald, imprisons him in a tower, and becomes a vassal to King William. 1116: The Cronicum Scotorum records a famine in the spring so terrible that ‘a man would sell his son and his daughter for food and men would even eat one another, and dogs. All Laigin was almost emptied, and scattered throughout Ireland on account of the famine.’ Magnus Bare-legs of the Western Isles, conquers the Isle of Man and Anglesey and is killed in Ulster. King Alexander I accedes throne and introduces Saxons into the Scottish church. The Scots people of the area rebel and are exiled. 1125: Holy Roman Emperor Henry V dies. 1127: Empress Matilda marries Geoffrey, Count of Anjou. Turlough Ó Conchobar king of Connacht (1106-1156) throws his energies into making himself High king of Ireland.
1130-1138 AD: The bastard son of King Alexander wrests for the crown, but is succeeded by David. David I is considered the first feudal (Norman) monarch of Scotland. He is raised in England and marries his sister Queen Matilda of Northumberland. He dispossesses the Scots of their land and grants it to his Norman nobility: Somerville, Lindsay, Bruce, Umpraville, Fitzalan. The Scots become serfs, latin for slave, for the Normans. David establishes two classes that persist to the 14th century: Serfs and Freemen who are bonded to the king. King Cathal of Connacht and King Mael Sechnaill are assasinated by the Leg Motha army and foreign mercenaries. The Celtic church is Romanized: the reliquary of Iarlaith is violated, Ros Comáin Church is burned and its superior and lector murdered by the men of Bréifne, Cluain moccu Nóis’s treasures are plundered & it is ‘struck by lightening’. A murraine: death kills all of the cows and most of the pigs. King Mael’s grandsons burn Lusc. The Scots revolt against the English at the Battle of the Standard, but are defeated.
1139-1173 AD: The Winter of Our Discontent Matilda’s father Henry I dies. Queen Adeliza remarries. Matilda invades England, wrests the throne from Stephen du Blois [Her paternal-aunt’s son] after imprisoning him and has him sign paperwork making her son Henry of Anjou, Henry II of England. Their descendants last names are Plantagenet from the Latin Planta genista: Sprig of the Broom Plant. 1153: David I dies and his grandson Malcolm IV is king. There is an unsuccessful uprising and Malcolm IV slaughters the residents of Moray. 1154: King Henry II and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine ascend the English throne. 1170: King Henry II Plantagenet seizes Northumberland and Cumberland, murders archbishop Thomas à Becket, and drains Ireland of its wealth with the help of King Stephen’s Flemish mercenary soldiers. The mercenaries stay in England to breed sheep. Donnchad the heir of Munster and Tairdelbach die in captivity. 1163: William the Lyon, Malcolm IV’s brother, takes the Scottish throne; is taken prisoner by the Barons of Yorkshire and surrenders the independance of Scotland to King Henry II of England in the Treaty of Falaise. He hands over Berwick, Roxburgh, Jedburgh, Edinburgh to the King of England at his release. The Scots murder the Normans and English of Fordun. (12)
International: Pope Eugenius III and St. Bernard preach the Second Crusade. Eleanor Plantagenet, daugther of Henry II, marries Alfonso VII of Castile. Melisende, eldest daughter of King Baldwin II (du Bourg) of Jerusalem & Edessa, becomes queen at his death and marries the Duke of Anjou. [Her sisters are Alice [Princess of Antioch], Hodierna [Count Raymond II of Tripoli] and Joveta [Abbess of Bethany]. She improves relations between Jacobite and Armenian churches, murders Alfonso-Jordan, Count of Toulouse and creates an army for Count Joscelin of Edessa. The Duke’s daughter Sybilla and her husband Thierry take over the kingship on the death of the parents. The Winged Lie Charles of Denmark, Sybillia’s relative, issues an edict forbidding all men except his own officers to go armed. The Karls of Erembald, freemen, who helped him to power are left out. Tancmar of Straten adopts his nephews Gilbert and Walter as successors. Walter issues an edict “a freemen who married a slave should after a year’s wedlock, cease to be free and sink to his wife’s condition”. The Erembalds assasinate Charles. Siege of Lisbon: Baldwin III dies. Louis VII and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine’s crusaders fight against the Saracens.
1175-1185 AD: Ruraidh Ó Conchobar (1161-1198) is the last high king of Ireland. He signs the Treaty of Windsor accepting King Henry II of the Angevin Empire as suzerain of Ireland. The reign of 187 kings since before the age of Christ is at an end.