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The Isle of Man. 175
pal leaders of the Gaelic insurrection of that year against King
David and his Anglo-Norman aristocracy and laws. The King of
Man and Somerled of Argyle, that king's son-in law, believed in
Malcolm. lie married Somerled's sister, and was soon at the
hciul of a land and sea force. He was strongly supported in this
part of the country. I don't believe the man was an impostor,
although the monkish flatterers of King David and his race branded
him as such. In a speech to Jving David him.self, Robert de
Brus, ancestor of the Bruce of Banuockburn, called Malcolm
M'lleth, the quondani monk and bishop, " heir to a father's hate
and persecution." 3Ialcolm ^I'Heth made descents hei-e, there,
and everywhere, and disappeared like a sea-bird before the king'g
forces. He was by degrees shaking King David's throne, and the
tirst check he received was, strange to say, in Celtic Galloway,
where the bishop led the array of tlie district, and, to encourage
the people, threw a small axe at the invader, which chanced
to strike and fell him. This created a panic among his
followers, and made them fly. In after years, M'Heth used
to say boastiiigly, that it was only God through the faith of
a simple bishop that marred his fortune. After the repulse
M'Heth suffered in Galloway, King David mustered all his Norman
cliivalry, and in some place not stated brought M'Heth to
bay, defeated, and captured him. He sent him as a prisoner to
Marchmont, or Roxburgh Castle, in 1137; being, as a saintly
man, afraid to take the life of a foe who had received the tonsure
and been consecrated a bishop. When King David died in 1153,
and his grandson, Malcolm the Maiden, succeeded him, M'Heth
was still a prisoner in Roxburgh Castle. His sons, although mere
youths, in company with their uncle, Somerled of Argyle, conjured
up a big storm next year. In 1156, Donald the eldest of
AI'Heth's sons, was taken prisoner, and sent to join his father in captivity.
But the war was carried on by Somerled and his other
nephew with such success that in 1157 young King Malcolm made
peace with ^I'Heth, liberated him, and made him Earl of Ross.
Malcolm M'Heth gave himself all the airs of a local king in Ross,
and created for himself enemies among the people and their local
chiefs, who conspired against him, beset him in a narrow pass,
captui-ed him, put out his eyes, and turned him out of the county.
He used to say in after years that if his enemies had left him a
sparrow's eye he would have been avenged upon them. His
enemies in Ross put out the eyes of Malcolm M'H^^th about 1161.
He then retired to the English monastery o? Bylands, where for
years he livrd, not uncheerfuUy, and whex-e William of Newburgh