CHAPTER V
HOW KING RUN INSOLENTLY IMPUGNED THE GRACE OF GOD, AND THE CURSE THROUGH WHICH HE PAID FOR HIS MISDEEDS
The conquest of the Inner Hebrides by King Run brought much joy to British Christendom, for within that territory laid the Bishopric of Iona. Once the powerhouse and leader of Celtic Christianity, Iona had suffered much under the reign of the Norse, who pillaged its riches and savaged its people. With great joy they embraced their liberator Run, but soon found their newfound freedom to be but a ruse, the heathens that had once pillaged the wealthy bishopric remained in power following their conversion to Christianity. This was an affront to the clergy of the Isles, and of Strathclyde as a whole, which now had to serve these former heathens as if they were true brothers in faith.
The Abbey of Iona, center of Celtic Christianity, founded by Saint Columba
While King Run had taken a more pragmatic approach to the situation, letting the Northmen remain so long as they converted, the clergy of Iona was having none of it, demanding an outrageous amount of food rent from the converted populace, while decreasing the food rent of the few Christians who remained in the Isles before the Norse desecrated its shores. These injustices were harshly felt by the Norse, who had reluctantly been forced to baptize, and who secretly still held to their false idols dearly.
These grievances were taken to the court of King Run, who used this opportunity as leverage to increase his authority over the kingdom, claiming that by doing so, he would be able to “persuade” the clergy of the Isles to enact more just taxation laws. And so the power of the King was substantially increased at the behest of his vassals, but the king failed to alleviate the situation, instead using his increased power to keep the unruly Norse populace in check, much to the dismay of his converted vassals.
This further enraged the Norse converts, who would rise up on July of 871 in rebellion. This rebellion was no mere peasant uprising, for the rebels seemed suspiciously organized, as well as well outfitted and armed. Historians suspect that the Norse vassals of King Run aided the rebels, funding their upheaval. Lack of damage to the Norse nobles' properties seem to indicate that there may be some truth to this belief. The monks of Iona had seen the writing on the wall, and managed to flee toward the Abbey of Kells in Ireland (which had also been founded by Saint Columba), where they awaited until King Run restored peace to the region.
The rebel leader Coitir, most likely a puppet leader, as is speculated that the Norse nobles in the regions were the true leaders of the revolt.
Despite their efforts and extreme resilience, the rebel forces were not able to muster enough men to defeat King Run's warbands, eventually scattering to the nearby kingdoms of York and Lothian, where they would hope to one day enact their revenge upon Strathclyde, led by the sons of the legendary Ragnar.
The Battles of the Norse Revolt
Despite his victory over the heathens, the clergy of Iona was not satisfied with King Run's rule, blaming the entire affair on his poor rule, claiming his soft hand over the converts had allowed them to gather strength to challenge their rule. They demanded the Norse vassals to be ousted from their lands, and in turn for those lands to be granted to the clergy as tithes, to prove Run's allegiance to the church. While the clergy wrestled with King Run to increase their power over the region, the Norse nobles most likely chose to follow a new path to overthrow King Run, choosing secrecy and intrigue over the sword. It would come to no surprise then, that the King's own son, Oucydd, would actively work with them to plot King Run's death. Some scholars try to argue that prince Oucydd was working with the clergy of Iona instead, rather than the Norse, but his poor treatment of the clergy of Cumberland (the prince's personal fief), would suggest his relationship with the clergy to be rather poor, and thus it is widely agreed that it was the Norse that Oucydd had been working with, for he was an ambitious man.
With both clergy and his vassals, as well as the prince himself all conspiring against his rule, King Run would become quite ill with stress and paranoia, frequently getting into scuffles with Queen Ermentrude, who Run suspected of infidelity, claiming the child she was carrying to not be his, despite the Frankish woman's pleas for respite. Eventually she would retire to the Abbey of Iona, where she would find shelter among the monks and nuns there. The Bishop of Iona would use her refuge there as leverage over the King, demanding once more for land tithes, as well as the funds to construct new monasteries in the region, to further cement their rule over the former pagans. King Run would refuse their demands repeatedly, and soon rumors spread of his lack of faith, and even of heresy. King Run had no use for religion unless it served his political goals, as it had when it served as justification to attack the Kingdom of the Isles just a couple of years prior. Records indicate that after a particularly heated debate between King Run and his court Bishop, the holy man cursed the King for his heresy, claiming him to be "accursed of God, and of his Church, from the sole of his foot, to the crown in his head." While contemporary scholars would claim this to be the reason of King Run's poor health throughout the rest of his life, some historians believe it to originate from a particularly nasty wound during his raids in Ireland.
The "heretic" King Run, and the curse placed upon him for such heresy
King Run would lose much function in his legs, leaving him badly crippled for the remainder of his life. This maladie had not discouraged the plotting of Prince Oucydd or the Norse nobles, but rather gave them the last push they needed to finally enact the assassination of the King. While their plot not only would ultimately fail due to the acute awareness of the King, but the Prince himself was outed as the mastermind behind the plan. This would shake King Run to the core, for now he realized the precarious position he found himself in. Crippled and cursed by God, separated from his newborn daughter and wife who stayed in Iona, where the clergy openly denounced him a heretic, his nobles conspiring behind his back, and even his son plotting for his murder, King Run was completely alone. What once seemed like the monarch to take the Cumbri to heights never seen before, was quickly becoming one of their most despised rulers in history.
The attempted murder of King Run, November of 874
This state of affairs could not have come at a worst time either, for the Viking Kingdoms neighboring Strathclyde were embroiled in chaos, which would have been the perfect time to strike Strathclyde not been in turmoil as well. Ubba of East Anglia had passed away, and his brother Ivar "the Boneless" had assumed control of the Kingdom despite their brother Halfdan being the rightful heir. This succession crisis would lead to the fracturing of their armies, as brother fought against brother. Halfdan would eventually recognize Ivar's rule in East Anglia, but Ivar would give up the Kingdom of Lothian, which Halfdan would annex into the much larger Kingdom of York. This war between brothers would cause Ivar to lose control over much of his domains in Ireland and Wales, falling prey to local Viking chiefs as well as the Swedes.
The Norse Kingdoms of Britain in September of 875: Halfdan's Kingdom of Northumbria (blue), Ivar's Kingdom of East Anglia (green), the Swedish fiefdom of Dublin (yellow), and the myriad of independent petty Norse chiefdoms (red)
Despite the fragile state of his Kingdom, King Run decided to march on the independent chiefdom of Streathearn, which laid at the crossroads of Scotland, Strathclyde, and Northumbria. It was crucial that the Cumbri annexed this land rapidly, for the other two kingdoms already had their eyes set on this vulnerable realm. While his frail health would not have allowed the King to personally lead the armies, record indicates that he was present during the battles, which leaves many to question who was ruling in his stead. This is further emphasized as the record for the next five years is marked by his absence in court, leaving the Kingdom in a state of anarchy as the petty nobles, the clergy, and Prince Oucydd vied for power in the vacuum left by King Run. Not much is known of the King's whereabouts during those years, but Prince Oucydd would soon perish to disease, leaving the intrigue of court solely to those not of the ruling dynasty.
The death of Prince Oucydd
The following year, Oucydd's son Dyfnwal would be imprisoned under the charge of treason, claiming him to be raising warbands to forcefully oust the clergymen and nobles who had virtually seized the throne from his grandfather. With Oucydd dead and Dyfnwal imprisoned, the last remaining members of King Run's dynasty were Prince Meirchon, the second child of Kin Run and product of his marriage with the Pictish princess Morag, as well as his daughter Ceindrech, product of his marriage with the Frankish princess Ermentrude. The Queen and princess Ceindrech were safe in Iona, where the Bishop had hid them from the King following his paranoid outbursts, and who he believed could be placed on the throne despite her older brother's claim to the throne. Meanwhile Prince Meirchon had been snatched out of Strathclyde by his Pictish side of the family amidst the turmoil of King Run's absence, who sought to place him in the throne as a puppet ruler upon King Run's death.
The King would return to court nearly five years after his departure, being brought back by a group of Irish monks, who claimed he had lived with for the past five years. This was not the King Run who conquered the Isles and Cumberland, nor the Run who sacked the northern Irish chiefdoms. The King was in a state of coma, unable to move, speak, or even think for himself. This brought about an increased chaos within the Kingdom, with petty thieves and marauders moving into the countryside with impunity. It would be just 5 months after his unceremonious return that King Run would perish under the afflictions of his poor state. With his death, the court entered into a state of anarchy, as the nobility refused to acknowledge princess Ceindrech's claim to the throne for she was a mere child, and a woman at that, claiming that only Meirchion could seize the throne, while fully aware of his unknown whereabouts. The Kingdom of Strathclyde was deeply fractured, and their ascendancy had not been ignored. The Scottish were on the move to secure Meirchion's throne, but across the Irish Sea, the High King of Tara had other plans for the young Meirchion.
The death of King Run, February of 881