Lulach the Bold

Lulach II
Lulach in a charter of 1145
King of Scots
Reign	17 November 1122 - 26 July 1146
Predecessor	Malsnectan
Successor	Kenneth IV
Born	8 April 1074 Scotland
Died	26 July 1146 (aged 72) St. Andrews, Scotland
Burial	Dunfermline Abbey
Consort	Trude Salian (m. 1095; d. 1107) Sigrid, princess of Denmark (m. 1112)
Issue	Ragnall, duke of Mann Donald Hugh the Hunter Barabal Harald Sigrid Eric Henry, duke of Capua
House	of Moray
Father	Malsnectan
Mother	Cecelia of Normandy

Lulach II, known as Lulach the Bold (8 April 1074 - 26 July 1146) reigned as King of Scots from 1122 until his death. The second king of the Moray dynasty, Lulach expanded Scottish power deep into England, exploiting the internal chaos experienced by the southern realm during his reign to conquer most of ancient Northumbria and parts of western England. An accomplished warrior and commander of men, he derived his epithet from his invasion of England in 1123-24.

Towards the end of his reign, Lulach was faced with the murder of his son and designated heir Ragnall in 1139, and the subsequent rebellion of his grandson Constantine, aided by the king of England. Lulach defeated this challenge, and on his death in 1146 he was succeeded by his only surviving brother Kenneth; Lulach's third son Hugh later became king.

Early life

Lulach was born on 8 April 1074, possibly at his father's stronghold of Forres in Moray, the eldest son and child of Malsnectan, king of Scots, and his wife Cecelia of Normandy, a daughter of William the Bastard, duke of Normandy. Little is known of his childhood, but from birth he was probably recognized as the future king; his position as heir was strengthened by his father's extermination of the rival Dunkeld dynasty in 1080-84. In 1086, when Lulach was twelve, his father forced the nobility and clergy to swear oaths of support for his eventual accession.

In the 1090s Lulach was a young knight in the Norman tradition of his mother, joining his father on his campaign in Caithness at the beginning of the decade. Initially proposed as the groom of Isabelle Capet, daughter of Philip, king of France, and then as the husband of Margrete, countess of Caithness, Lulach ultimately married Trude Salian, daughter of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1095. In 1097 Lulach led a large war-band during his father's invasion of England, and joined him in capturing York the following year.

Adult prince

In a story repeated frequently by later chroniclers, Lulach celebrated Christmas of 1098 at the king's court in Carlisle with his uncle Erik Svendsen. Lulach and Erik competed for the king's favor, symbolized by taking possession of the royal spear to kill a boar for the feast. Malsnectan gave the spear to Erik, who was gored and fatally injured by the boar later that afternoon. In the aftermath of his lucky escape, Lulach founded a chapel at Carlisle in honor of the Virgin Mary.

In 1102, Lulach murdered Eudes de Bourgogne, prince of France, a friend and counselor of his father, after a verbal argument while the king's court was at Forres. According to one chronicler, Lulach struck Eudes down with his sword and the prince's companions rushed to his aid, bashing Eudes' brains out and leaving him lifeless in the courtyard of the castle. Lulach escaped punishment for the murder, perhaps because the death of his mother Queen Cecelia later that year overshadowed the killing.

Lulach's first wife Trude died in 1107 after giving birth to her fourth child and was buried at Dunfermline Abbey. Lulach was grief-stricken by her death and did not take a new wife until 1112, when he married the Danish princess Sigrid after negotiations between Scotland and Denmark. In 1115 Lulach, now in his early forties and at the peak of his powers as a warrior, bypassed his elderly father's authority to raise a Scottish host and invade England. Lulach was defeated at St. Aidan's on 31 July 1115, after which Malsnectan resumed control of Scottish diplomacy and brought the war to an end. In 1116 Lulach's eldest son Ragnall married Ủna ua Cheinnselaig, countess of Meath and Dublin, and he travelled to Ireland for the wedding.

Lulach's influence grew apace as Malsnectan aged. By the early 1120s the old king was carried around in a litter, while Lulach was probably the supreme power in the kingdom. Malsnectan died at Perth on 17 November 1122.

Reign (1122-46)

Lulach was inaugurated as king of Scots at Scone on 18 November 1122, at the age of forty-eight. Several days after his inauguration he was almost killed by a bear while hunting in the Carse of Gowrie. The beginning of Lulach's reign in Scotland coincided with a new phase in the ongoing civil war in England. The deposition of Astrid, queen of England, in 1117 had not gone unchallenged, and the resulting five years of political conflict resulted in the election of Kentigern of Strathearn, a Scot, to the English throne in 1121, a compromise that pleased nobody. In March 1123 Astrid secured a second coronation at Westminster after her supporters attacked London and slaughtered Kentigern's supporters in the city.

Astrid of England, whose return to power in 1123 sparked the disintegration of the English kingdom

Kentigern refused to give up the throne and established himself as rival king at Hertford, splitting England into two parts, with the Midlands and the important city of Winchester supporting Kentigern and most of the southast, along with Northamptonshire and Middlesex, supporting Astrid. Meanwhile Godwine, earl of Northumberland, proclaimed himself king of Northumbria and renounced his allegiance to the English crown. Later in 1123 Thurfrith, earl of Derby and Chester, rebelled against Kentigern and established an independent kingdom of Mercia.

Conquest of Northumbria

The disintegration of the kingdom of England provided Lulach with miraculous opportunities for plunder and expansion. In the summer of 1123 the Scottish king led an invasion of Northumbria and defeated Godwine of Northumbria's army at Furness. Towards the end of the year Lulach captured the rich town of Durham, burning it to the ground, before besieging the castle of Bamburgh; the port town of Hartlepool was also destroyed by the Scots. When Godwine cautiously approached with a force of knights to relieve the castle, Lulach rounded on him and routed his men.

In early 1124 Lulach summoned Godwine to Edinburgh, recently risen to importance under the lordship of Edward Dunbar, and forced him to do homage as "duke of Northumbria", annexing his lands to the Scottish crown as a feudal vassal. Meanwhile the chaos in England continued; later that year, Queen Astrid agreed to ally with Thurfrith, king of Mercia, recognizing his independence in exchange for a mutual attack on Kenitgern of Strathearn. After a hunting injury in the autumn of 1124, Lulach summoned his vassals to Dunfermline in May 1125 and made them swear oaths to his eldest son Ragnall as the next king.

Conquest of Chester

One nobleman who refused to swear allegiance to Ragnall was Æthelwine, the Anglo-Saxon earl of Teviotdale, already feuding with his lord Edward Dunbar. In 1126 Lulach brought an army to Teviotdale and forced Æthelwine to flee over the border into Mercia, leaving the province in the hands of Edward Dunbar before continuing south. Lulach intended to attack Thurfrith of Mercia, taking advantage of his preoccupation with the war against Kentigern, but was forced to retire to Carlisle in the late spring by an aggravation of his hunting injury. Ragnall mac Lulach took command of the Scottish host, and chased Thurfrith out of Yoredale after a "bloody combat" in August.

The city of Chester, conquered by the Scots in 1126-27

By January 1127 Ragnall had captured Chester, a prominent town in western England, in a severe blow to Thurfrith. The stone walls of the town were garrisoned by paid mercenaries and Ragnall brought his army to face Thurfrith at Scarborough. In the ensuing battle a group of Danish warriors sent by Ulf Svendsen, king of Denmark, captured Thurfrith alive on the field. In March Lulach travelled south to York to accept Thurfrith's surrender. In exchange for his release, the Mercian king was forced to surrender Chester to the Scots in perpetuity.