Somhairle mac Giolla Brighde, King of the Isles

Somerled
Somerled's name as it appears on folio 35v. of British Library MS Cotton Julius A VII (the Chronicles of Mann): "Sumerledo".
Died	1164 Battle of Renfrew
Burial	probably Iona
Consort	Ragnhild
Issue	GilleBride, Dubgall, Ragnall, Aonghas, Olaf, Bethóc
Father	GilleBride

Somerled (died 1164), known in Middle Irish as Somairle, Somhairle, and Somhairlidh, and in Old Norse as Sumarliði, was a mid-12th-century warlord who, through marital alliance and military conquest, rose in prominence and seized control of the Kingdom of the Isles. Little is certain of Somerled's origins, although he appears to have belonged to a Norse–Gaelic family of some substance. His father, GilleBride, appears to have conducted a marriage alliance with Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair, son of Alexander I of Scotland, and claimant to the Scottish throne. Following a period of dependence upon David I of Scotland, Somerled first appears on record in 1153, when he supported kinsmen, identified as the sons of Malcolm, in their insurgence against the newly enthroned Malcolm IV of Scotland. Following this unsuccessful uprising, Somerled appears to have turned his sights upon the kingship of the Isles, then ruled by his brother-in-law, Godred Olafsson. Taking advantage of the latter's faltering authority, Somerled participated in a violent coup d'état, and seized half of the kingdom in 1156. Two years later, he defeated and drove Godred from power, and Somerled ruled the entire kingdom until his death.

Somerled was slain in 1164 at the Battle of Renfrew, amidst an invasion of mainland Scotland, commanding forces drawn from all over his kingdom. The reasons for his attack are unknown. He may have wished to nullify Scottish encroachment, but the scale of his venture suggests that he nursed greater ambitions. On his death, Somerled's vast kingdom disintegrated, although his sons retained much of the southern Hebridean portion. Compared to his immediate descendants, who associated themselves with reformed religious orders, Somerled may have been something of a religious traditionalist. In the last year of his life, he attempted to persuade the head of the Columban monastic community, Flaithbertach Ua Brolcháin, Abbot of Derry, to relocate from Ireland to Iona, a sacred island within Somerled's sphere of influence. Unfortunately for Somerled, his demise denied him the ecclesiastical reunification he sought, and decades later his descendants oversaw the obliteration of the island's Columban monastery. Iona's oldest surviving building, St Oran's Chapel, dates to the mid-12th century, and may have been built by Somerled or his family.