Fun with genealogical tables
I don't spend a lot of time looking at genealogical tables but I was intrigued by part of a table of the Scottish royal line in David Carpenter's The Struggle for Mastery. It's all about the names and their ethnic/linguistic origin.
It starts with Duncan (a Gaelic name) I. Both his children get Gaelic names; Malcolm and Donalban. Malcolm reigned as Malcolm III and this is where it gets interesting. He married twice, firstly to a Scandinavian, Ingibjorg, and secondly to Margaret the granddaughter of Edmund Ironside of England. In the six generations or so following all the descendants of Duncan and Margaret have impeccably Anglo-Norman names. All the kings between 1097 and the death of Alexander III in 1286 come from this branch. Other descendants included David, earl of Huntingdon, Robert Bruce and others of essentially Anglo-Norman cultural orientation.
So let's look at what happened to Ingibjorg's descendants. One, Duncan II, reigned briefly but this line is best known for establishing a power base in the north west from which it launched a number of unsuccessful attempts to regain the throne. Something linguistically (and presumably culturally) significant happens in this process. Duncan II's son was named William and was known to the chroniclers asWilliam fitz Duncan, so impeccably Anglo-Norman. His descendants are all given Gaelic or Norse names. His son comes down to us as Donald MacWilliam and subsequent generations bear equally Gaelic names down to the last adult survivor of the line Gilleasbuig was killed in 1230 and the line came to an end when his infant daughter's brains were bashed out on Forfar market cross.
As far as I know, Gilleasbuig's revolt was the last serious attempt to put someone of Norse and/or Gaelic culture and language on the throne of Scotland.
It starts with Duncan (a Gaelic name) I. Both his children get Gaelic names; Malcolm and Donalban. Malcolm reigned as Malcolm III and this is where it gets interesting. He married twice, firstly to a Scandinavian, Ingibjorg, and secondly to Margaret the granddaughter of Edmund Ironside of England. In the six generations or so following all the descendants of Duncan and Margaret have impeccably Anglo-Norman names. All the kings between 1097 and the death of Alexander III in 1286 come from this branch. Other descendants included David, earl of Huntingdon, Robert Bruce and others of essentially Anglo-Norman cultural orientation.
So let's look at what happened to Ingibjorg's descendants. One, Duncan II, reigned briefly but this line is best known for establishing a power base in the north west from which it launched a number of unsuccessful attempts to regain the throne. Something linguistically (and presumably culturally) significant happens in this process. Duncan II's son was named William and was known to the chroniclers asWilliam fitz Duncan, so impeccably Anglo-Norman. His descendants are all given Gaelic or Norse names. His son comes down to us as Donald MacWilliam and subsequent generations bear equally Gaelic names down to the last adult survivor of the line Gilleasbuig was killed in 1230 and the line came to an end when his infant daughter's brains were bashed out on Forfar market cross.
As far as I know, Gilleasbuig's revolt was the last serious attempt to put someone of Norse and/or Gaelic culture and language on the throne of Scotland.