Maccus mac Arailt

Maccus mac Arailt
King of the Isles
Maccus' name as it appears on page 59r of Oxford Jesus College MS 111 (the Red Book of Hergest): "Marc uab herald".
Successor	Gofraid mac Arailt
House	probably Uí Ímair
Father	probably Aralt mac Sitriuc

Maccus mac Arailt (fl. 971–974) was a tenth century King of the Isles. Although his parentage is uncertain, surviving evidence suggests that he was the son of Aralt mac Sitriuc, King of Limerick. Maccus' family is known as the Meic Arailt kindred. He and his brother, Gofraid, are first recorded in the 970s. It was during this decade and the next that they conducted military operations against the Welsh of Anglesey, apparently taking advantage of dynastic strife within the Kingdom of Gwynedd.

The Meic Arailt violence during this period could account for Maccus' participation in a royal assembly convened by Edgar, King of the English. Maccus may have been regarded as a potential threat by not only the English and Welsh kings, but also the rulers of the Kingdom of Strathclyde. Perhaps as a conseuqnece of this convention, the Meic Arailt thereafter turned their attention to Ireland. In 974, Maccus defeated and captured Ímar, King of Limerick. Gofraid resumed the family's campaigning against the Welsh before the end of the decade. In 984, the Meic Arailt appear to have formed an alliance with the family of Brian mac Cennétig, King of Munster. Whether Maccus was alive by this date is unknown. He does not appear on record after this date, and seems to have been succeeded by brother. Gofraid is the first King of the Isles to be identified as such by Irish sources.

Maccus was a member of the Meic Arailt kindred, although his exact parentage is uncertain. Surviving evidence suggests that Maccus' father was probably Aralt mac Sitriuc, King of Limerick (died 940). Such a relationship would mean that Maccus was a member of the Uí Ímair. Alternate possibilities—lacking specific evidence—are that Maccus was a son of Hagrold, a Danish warlord active in Normandy; or a son of Haraldr Gormsson, King of Denmark (died c.986).