- Ruaidhri mac Raghnaill
Infobox_Person
name = Ruaidhri mac Raghnaill
other_names = Ruairi, son of Ranald
caption =
birth_date = c. Late 1100s
birth_place =
death_date = 1247 (?)
death_place =Ballyshannon (?)
death_cause = Battle (?)
known =
occupation =
title = Lord of Kintyre
Ruler ofGarmoran (?)
salary =
term = fl. 1214-?1247
predecessor =
successor = Dubhghall
party =
boards =
religion =
spouse = Unknown
children = Dubhghall, Alan
relations =
website =
footnotes =Ruaidhri mac Raghnaill was a 13th-century Scottish
magnate . The son of Raghnall, son ofSomerled , he appears to have spent his career fighting, in bothIreland and in Scotland. It has been argued that he became hostile to both the Scottish and English crowns, fighting the Scottish crown in the MacWilliam revolts and dying against the English at theBattle of Ballyshannon in 1247.Biography
Origins
Hugh MacDonald of Sleat's 17th-century "History of the Macdonalds" reported a tradition that Ruaidhri's father Raghnall was married to a daughter or sister of the early 14th-century hero
Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray . Sellar suggests that his mother may have been a daughter ofWilliam fitz Duncan , on the basis that there is a possibility the tradition had confused a later and famousEarl of Moray with an earlier one. [Sellar, "Hebridean Sea-Kings", p. 200.]His father Raghnall, carrying the legacy of his own father Somerled, was a powerful Argyll and Hebridean magnate who, depending on context, bore the titles "King of the Isles", "Lord of Argyll and Kintyre", and "lord of the Hebrides ("Inchegal").Sellar, "Hebridean Sea-Kings", p. 194, table ii.] His father's legacy was such that he became the ancestor figure of both the Clan Ruaidhri and the
Clan Donald .ketch of his known career
Ruaidhri's heartland appears to have lain initially in
Kintyre , as he bore the title "Lord of Kintyre" ("dominus de Kyntire").Ruaídhrí appears on record for the first time when, in 1214, he accompanied Tomás Mac Uchtraigh, son of
Lochlann of Galloway , on a raid upon the Irish city ofDerry :Tomás mac Uchtraigh & Ruaidhri mac Raghnaill plundered Daire completely and took the treasures of the Community of Daire and of the North of Ireland besides from out the midst of the church of the Monastery. ["
In 1212, Tomás had raided Derry with a fleet with seventy-six ships, and it is probable that Ruaídhrí was the unnamed "son of Raghnall" who had accompanied Tomás then. [Woolf, "Dead Man", pp. 79-80; see also Anderson, "Early Sources", vol. ii, pp. 393, 395.]Annals of Ulster ", [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100001B/text003.html s.a. 1214.2] ( [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100001B/text014.html trans] )]For the rest of Ruaidhri's life, there is little unambiguous evidence of his activities. [See Woolf, "Dean Man", p. 80.] R. Andrew McDonald argued that Ruaidhri mac Raghnaill was the 'Roderick' who fought in the MacWilliam rebellion against King
Alexander II of Scotland between 1223 and 1230, a suggestionAlex Woolf called "attractive". [McDonald, "Kingdom of the Isles", p. 82; Woolf, "Dead Man", p. 80; see also Anderson, "Early Sources", vol. ii, p. 471.]Alex Woolf suggested further that Ruaidhri's motivations stemmed from Ruaidhri's hostility to Scottish support for Óláfr, son of Goðrøðr Óláfsson; Ruaidhri may have been allied through marriage to Goðrøðr Óláfsson's other son, Óláfr's half-brother and rival Rögnvaldr, king of Mann; more to the point, Óláfr appears to have repudiated Ruaidhri's kinswoman for a daughter of
Ferchar, Earl of Ross , all while King Alexander II was promoting the power of Donnchadh mac Dubhghaill in the west-coast of Scotland, Ruaidhri's base. [Woolf, "Dead Man", pp. 80-2.]Death and legacy
Assuming he survived the final defeat of the MacWilliams in 1230, the remainder of Ruaidhri's life is obscure. However, reporting the year 1247, the "
Annals of Loch Cé " related that:Mac Somhairle, king of Airer-Gaeidhel, and the nobles of the Cenel-Conaill besides, were slain. ["
Woolf has argued that Ruaidhri was the "Mac Somhairle" who died in this battle, fighting the English atAnnals of Loch Cé ", s.a. 1247.7, available [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100010A/text011.html here] .]Ballyshannon . [Woolf, "Dead Man", pp. 77-85.] Sellar also thought, for other reasons, that the "dead man at Ballyshannon" was Ruaidhri. [Sellar, "Hebridean Sea Kings", pp. 200-1.] Macdonald believed that it referred to Donnchadh mac Dubhghaill, while Duffy suggested Domhnall mac Raghnaill. [McDonald, "Kingdom of the Isles", p. 94; Duffy, "Bruce Brothers", p. 56.]Ruaidhri's son Dubhghall continued his father's legacy, hostile to the Scottish crown while fighting the English in Ireland, notably killing
Jordan d'Exeter offConnaught in 1258. [Woolf, "Dead Man", p. 85.] Ruaidhri's ancestors held Garmoran and much of the north-west Scottish coast until the early 14th century, when the MacRuaidhri heiress Christiana married Eoin of Islay, who took Christiana's lands and became the first MacDonaldLord of the Isles . [McDonald, "Kingdom of the Isles", p. 189.]Notes
References
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