Scotland in The High Middle Ages - Strathclyde

Strathclyde

The main language of Strathclyde and elsewhere in the Hen Ogledd in the opening years of the High Middle Ages was Cumbric, a variety of the British language akin to Old Welsh. Some time after 1018 and before 1054, the kingdom appears to have been conquered by the Scots, most probably during the reign of Máel Coluim mac Cináeda who died in 1034. At this time the territory of Strathclyde extended as far south as the River Derwent. In 1054, the English king Edward the Confessor dispatched Earl Siward of Northumbria against the Scots, then ruled by Mac Beth. By the 1070s, if not earlier in the reign of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, it appears that the Scots again controlled Strathclyde, although William Rufus annexed the southern portion in 1092. The territory was granted by Alexander I to his brother David, later King David I, in 1107.