Ragnall mac Gofraid
King of the Isles (died 1004/1005) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Ragnall mac Gofraid (died 1004/1005) was King of the Isles and likely a member of the Uí Ímair kindred.[note 1] He was a son of Gofraid mac Arailt, King of the Isles. Ragnall and Gofraid flourished at a time when the Kingdom of the Isles seems to have suffered from Orcadian encroachment at the hands of Sigurðr Hlǫðvisson, Earl of Orkney. Gofraid died in 989. Although Ragnall is accorded the kingship upon his own death in 1004 or 1005, the succession after his father's death is uncertain.
Ragnall mac Gofraid | |
---|---|
King of the Isles | |
Predecessor | Gofraid mac Arailt |
Died | 1004 or 1005 Munster |
Issue | Echmarcach?, Cacht?, Amlaíb? |
House | probably Uí Ímair |
Father | Gofraid mac Arailt |
During his career, Ragnall may have contended with Gilli, an apparent Hebridean rival who was closely aligned with Sigurðr. Another possible opponent of Ragnall may have been Sveinn Haraldsson, King of Denmark who attacked Mann in 955. This man is recorded to have been exiled from Scandinavia at one point in his career, and to have found shelter with a certain "rex Scothorum", a monarch that could refer to Ragnall himself. Whatever the case, Mann also fell prey to Æthelræd II, King of the English in 1000. Both military operations may have been the retaliation.
The circumstances surrounding Ragnall's death in Munster are unknown. On one hand it is possible that he had been exiled from the Isles at the time of his demise. Another possibility is that he had—or was in the process of—forming an alliance with Brian Bóruma mac Cennétig, King of Munster, a man who seems to have held an alliance with Ragnall's father. On possibility is that Ragnall sought assistance from Briain after having been forced from the Isles by Orcadian military might. A power vacuum resulting from Ragnall's demise may partly account from the remarkable English invasion of England by Máel Coluim mac Cináeda, King of Alba.
At about the same time as Ragnall's death, Brian occupied the high kingship of Ireland, and there is evidence to suggest that the latter's authority stretched into the Irish Sea region and northern Britain. Not long afterwards, an apparent brother of Ragnall, Lagmann mac Gofraid, is attested on the Continent, a fact which might be evidence that this man had been ejected from the Isles by Brian. An apparent son Lagmann was slain in battle against Brian's forces in 1014. The lack of a suitable native candidate to reign in the Isles may have led to the region falling under the royal authority of the Norwegian Hákon Eiríksson. The latter's death in 1029 or 1030 may have likewise contributed to the rise Echmarcach mac Ragnaill, King of Dublin and the Isles, a possible son of Ragnall. Other children of Ragnall could include Cacht ingen Ragnaill, and the father of Gofraid mac Amlaíb meic Ragnaill, King of Dublin.