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April 4, 2018 by Alexander Meldrum
IONA Kingdom of the Isles
As the Norse domination of the west coast of Scotland advanced, Iona became part of the Kingdom of the Isles. The Norse Rex plurimarum insularum Amlaíb Cuarán died in 980 ...IONA Kingdom of the Isles
As the Norse domination of the west coast of Scotland advanced, Iona became part of the Kingdom of the Isles. The Norse Rex plurimarum insularum Amlaíb Cuarán died in 980 or 981 whilst in "religious retirement" on Iona.
Nonetheless, the island was sacked twice by his successors, on Christmas night 986 and again in 987. Although Iona was never again important to Ireland,
it rose to prominence once more in Scotland following the establishment of the Kingdom of Alba in the later 9th century; the ruling dynasty of Alba traced its origin to Iona,
and the island thus became an important spiritual centre for the new kingdom, with many of its early kings buried there, However, a campaign by Magnus Barelegs led to the formal acknowledgement of Norwegian control of Argyll, in 1098.
Somerled, the brother-in-law of Norway's governor of the region (the King of the Isles), launched a revolt and made the kingdom independent.
A convent for Benedictine nuns was established in about 1208, with Bethóc, Somerled's daughter, as the first prioress. The present Benedictine abbey, Iona Abbey, was built in about 1203.
On Somerled's death, nominal Norwegian overlordship of the Kingdom was re-established, but de facto control was split between Somerled's sons and his brother-in-law.
Kingdom of Scotland
Following the 1266 Treaty of Perth, the Hebrides were transferred from Norwegian to Scottish overlordship. At the end of the century, King John Balliol was challenged for the throne by Robert de Bruys Robert The Bruce.
By this point, Somerled's descendants had split into three groups, the MacRory, MacDougalls, and MacDonalds. The MacDougalls backed Balliol,
so when he was defeated by de Bruys, the latter exiled the MacDougalls and transferred their island territories to the MacDonalds; by marrying the heir of the MacRorys,
the heir of the MacDonalds re-unified most of Somerled's realm, creating the Lordship of the Isles, under nominal Scottish authority. Iona,
which had been a MacDougall territory (together with the rest of Lorn), was given to the Campbells, where it remained for half a century.
In 1354, though in exile and without control of his ancestral lands, John, the MacDougall heir, quitclaimed any rights he had over Mull and Iona to the Lord of the Isles (though this had no meaningful effect at the time).
When Robert's son, David II, King of Scotland, became king, he spent some time in English captivity; following his release, in 1357, he restored MacDougall authority over Lorn.
The 1354 quitclaim, which seems to have been an attempt to ensure peace in just such an eventuality, took automatic effect, splitting Mull and Iona from Lorn, and making it subject to the Lordship of the Isles.
Iona remained part of the Lordship of the Isles for the next century and a half.
Following the 1491 Raid on Ross, the Lordship of the Isles was dismantled, and Scotland gained full control of Iona for the second time. The monastery and nunnery continued to be active until the Reformation when buildings were demolished and all but three of the 360 carved crosses destroyed. The Augustine nunnery now only survives as a number of 13th-century ruins, including a church and cloister.
By the 1760s little more of the nunnery remained standing than at present, though it is the most complete remnant of a medieval nunnery in Scotland.
The island, which was once the metropolis of learning and piety, now has no school for education, nor temple for worship.
He estimated the population of the village at 70 families or perhaps 350 inhabitants. In the 19th century, green-streaked marble was commercially mined in the south-east of Iona; the quarry and machinery survive.
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