Campaigns
In 1212 Alan responded to a summons from King John I of England by sending 1,000 troops to join the war against the Welsh. In this year he also sent one of his daughters to England as a hostage. She died in 1213 in the custody of her maternal uncle. Alan is listed as one of the 16 men who counseled King John regarding the Magna Carta.
Alan, like his forebears, maintained a carefully ambiguous relationship with both the English and Scottish states, acting as a vassal when it suited his purpose and as an independent monarch when he could get away with it. His considerable sea power allowed him to supply fleets and armies to aid the English King John in campaigns both in France and Ireland.
In 1225, Alan lent military aid to Ragnvald Godredsson, King of the Isles against Ragnvald's half-brother, Olaf. Sometime later, Alan's illegitimate son, Thomas, was married to Ragnvald's daughter. The marriage gave Alan a stake in the kingship, and it appears that Thomas was intended to succeed to the Kingship of the Isles. However, the marriage appears to have angered the Manx people, and Ragnvald was deposed from the kinship and replaced by Olaf in 1226. Ragnvald may well have gone into exile at Alan's court. In 1228, Alan and his brother, Thomas, and Ragnvald, attacked and devastated the Isle of Man, while Olaf was absent in the Hebrides.
Alan died in 1234 and is buried at Dundrennan Abbey in Galloway.
Read more about this topic: Alan Of Galloway
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