Lord of the Isles, now a Scottish title of nobility, originally referred to a series of hybrid Viking / Gael rulers of the west coast and islands of Scotland in the middle ages, who held sea- power with fleets of galleys Although at times nominal vassals of the King of Norway and/or of the King of Scotland, the Lords of the Isles remained functionally independent for many centuries. Their territory included the Hebrides, (Skye and Ross from 1438), Knoydart, Ardnamurchan, the Kintyre peninsula, Arran and Antrim in Ireland ( see map (http://www.clan-donald-usa.org/history.htm)).
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The west coast and islands formed part of the territories of the Northern Picts (the Alban Gael), but in the 7th and 8th centuries this was one of the areas to suffer raids and invasions by vikings from both Norway and Denmark, and the islands were known to the Gael as Innse-Gall, the Islands of the Strangers. Around 875 Norwegian jarls, or princes, came to these islands to avoid losing independence under the unification of Norway under Harald Fairhair, but he pursued them, and conquered the Hebrides as well as Man, the Shetlands and Orkneys. The following year the people of the Isles, both the Picts (called the Gall Gael) and the Norse, rebelled. Harold sent his cousin Ketil to regain control, but Ketil then declared himself King of the Isles. Overlordship would continue to be disputed between Scotland and Norway, with the Jarls of Orkney at times seeing themselves as independent rulers.
A mutual defence bond was agreed in 973 between Marcus, King of the Isles, Kenneth, King of the Scots, and Malcolm, King of the Cambri, but subsequently Gilledomman of the Isles was defeated by the Scandinavians and expelled to Ireland. The Norse nobleman Godred Crovan, ruler of Man and the Isles, then encouraged the Isles to break away and become an independent state, but in 1095 he was deposed by the new King Magnus Bare Leg of Norway, who (according to Prebble) went on to use the threat of invasion to successfully bully King Edgar I of Scotland into ceding the Hebrides and Kintyre to Norway. Lavery cites a tale from the Orkneyinga Saga that in 1098 Earl Magnus of Orkney was offered by King Malcolm I of Scotland all the islands off the west coast navigable with the rudder set, then Magnus had a skiff hauled across the neck of land at Tarbert, Loch Fyne with himself at the helm, thus gaining the Kintyre peninsula. The date falls after the end of Malcolm'e reign.
Somerled, Gilledomman's grandson, successfully seized the Isles from the Norse in 1140 and founded the dynasties of the Lords of the Isles. He was Celtic on his father's side and Norse on his mother's, and was known as Somerled Macgilbred, Somhairle or in Norse Sumarlidi Höld, Somerled meaning "summer wanderer", the name given to the Vikings. He took the title Rex Insularum (King of the Isles) as well as King of Man. After his death in 1164 his kingdom was divided between three of his sons, Aonghus (his descendants would be McRuari or McRory), Dughall (ancestor of Clan MacDougall), and Ragnald whose son Donald Mor McRanald would give the name to the MacDonalds who would contest territory with the MacDougalls. Donald's son Angus Mor (the Elder) MacDonald (the first MacDonald) was confirmed Lord of Islay by King Haakon IV of Norway and joined him for the Battle of Largs, then when that ended with an effective victory for the Scots accepted King Alexander as his (nominal) overlord and kept his territory.
Angus Og, Angus Mor's younger son, gave assistance to Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, and in reward kept control of the Isles and was given most of the land confiscated from the McDougalls for backing the wrong side. Angus Og's son Good John of Islay was the first to formally assume the title Lord of the Isles.
In their maritime domain galleys were used for both warfare and transport. These ships were a development of the Viking longships and knarrs, clinker built with a square sail and rows of oars. From the 14th century they changed from a steering oar to a stern rudder. These ships were used for sea battles and to attack the castles or forts built close to the sea. Their feudal dues were specified in terms of numbers and size of galleys each island had to provide in service to their Lord.
Successive Lords of the Isles fiercely asserted their independence, culminating in 1462 with John MacDonald II of the Isles making a treaty with Edward IV of England to conquer Scotland with him and the Earl of Douglas. This treason was discovered and in 1493 he forfeited his estates and titles to James IV of Scotland. Since then, the eldest male child of the reigning Scottish, or later British, monarch has held the title of the "Lord of the Isles".
Currently (as of 2004) Charles, Prince of Wales bears the title of Lord of the Isles.