page_title: Walter fitz Alan
section_title: The Isles
hierarchical_section_title: Walter fitz Alan / The Isles
caption_attribution_description: English: Map for the Wikipedia article concerning Walter fitz Alan, Steward of Scotland (died 1177).
context_page_description: Walter FitzAlan was a twelfth-century Scottish magnate and Steward of Scotland. He was a younger son of Alan fitz Flaald and Avelina de Hesdin. In about 1136, Walter entered into the service of David I, King of Scotland. He became the king's dapifer or steward in about 1150, and served as such for three successive Scottish kings: David, Malcolm IV, and William I. In time, the stewardship became hereditarily-held by Walter's descendants.
  Walter started his career as a minor English baron. Upon arriving in Scotland, however, he received a substantial grant of lands from his Scottish sovereigns. These included the western provincial lordships of: Mearns, Strathgryfe, Renfrew and North Kyle. The caput of Walter's holdings is uncertain, although there is reason to suspect it was either Dundonald Castle or Renfrew Castle. Walter was a benefactor of several religious houses, and was the founder of Paisley Priory.
  There is reason to suspect that Walter took part in the Siege of Lisbon against the Moors in 1147. He probably assisted Malcolm in the series of Scottish invasions of Galloway in the 1160, which resulted in the downfall of Fergus, Lord of Galloway.
context_section_description: In 1164, Somairle launched an invasion of Scotland. This seaborne campaign is attested by sources such as: the fourteenth-century Annals of Tigernach, the fifteenth- to sixteenth-century Annals of Ulster, the twelfth-century Carmen de Morte Sumerledi, the thirteenth-century Chronica of Roger de Hoveden, the Chronicle of Holyrood, the thirteenth- to fourteenth-century Chronicle of Mann, the Chronicle of Melrose, Gesta annalia I, the fifteenth-century Mac Carthaigh's Book, and the fifteenth-century Scotichronicon.
  The various depictions of Somairle's forces—stated to have been drawn from Argyll, Dublin, and the Isles—appear to reflect the remarkable reach of power that this man possessed at his peak. According to the Chronicle of Melrose, Somairle landed at Renfrew, and was defeated and slain by the people of the district. This stated location of could be evidence that the target of Somairle's strike was Walter. Nevertheless, the leadership of the Scottish forces is uncertain. It is conceivable that the commander was one of the three principal men of the region: Herbert, Bishop of Glasgow, Baldwin, Sheriff of Lanark/Clydesdale, and Walter himself. Whilst there is reason to suspect that Somairle focused his offensive upon Walter's lordship at Renfrew, it is also possible that Hebert, as Malcolm's agent in the west, was the intended target. Certainly, Carmen de Morte Sumerledi associates Herbert with the victory, and makes no mention of Walter or any Scottish royal forces. On the other hand, Baldwin's nearby lands of Inverkip and Houston were passed by Somairle's naval forces, suggesting that it was either Baldwin or his followers who engaged and overcame the invaders.
  Exactly why Somairle struck out at the Scots is unknown. This man's rise to power appears to coincide with an apparent weakening of Scottish royal authority in Argyll. Although David may well have regarded Argyll as a Scottish tributary, Somairle's ensuing career clearly reveals that the latter regarded himself a fully independent ruler. Somairle's first attestation by a contemporary source occurs in 1153, when the Chronicle of Holyrood reports that he backed the cause of his nepotes, the Meic Máel Coluim, in an unsuccessful coup after David's death. These nepotes—possibly nephews or grandsons of Somairle—were the sons of Máel Coluim mac Alasdair, a claimant to the Scottish throne, descended from an elder brother of David, Alexander I, King of Scotland. Four years later Somairle launched his final invasion of Scotland, and it is possible that it was conducted in the context of another attempt to support Máel Coluim's claim to the Scottish throne.
  Another possibility is that Somairle was attempting to secure a swathe of territory that had only recently been secured by the Scottish Crown. Although there is no record of Somairle before 1153, his family was evidently involved in an earlier insurrection by Máel Coluim against David that ended with Máel Coluim's capture and imprisonment in 1134. An aftereffect of this failed insurgency may be perceptible in a Scottish royal charter issued at Cadzow in about 1136. This source records the Scottish Crown's claim to cáin in Carrick, Kyle, Cunningham, and Strathgryfe. Historically, this region appears to have once formed part of the territory dominated by the Gall Gaidheil, a people of mixed Scandinavian and Gaelic ethnicity. One possibly is that these lands had formerly comprised part of a Gall Gaidheil realm before the Scottish Crown overcame Máel Coluim and his supporters. The Cadzow charter is one of several that mark the earliest record of Fergus. This man's attestation could indicate that, whilst Somairle's family may have suffered marginalisation as a result of Máel Coluim's defeat and David's consolidation of the region, Fergus and his family could have conversely profited at this time as supporters of David's cause. The record of Fergus amongst the Scottish elite at Cadzow is certainly evidence of the increasing reach of David's royal authority in the 1130s.
  Another figure first attested by these charters is Wal
caption: Some twelfth-century lordships, created by David I and Malcolm IV, appear to have carved out of territories previously occupied by the Gall Gaidheil. Somairle may have attempted to regain these lands from the Scots.
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