Strathclyde

Strathclyde (străth'klīd`) [Gaelic,=Clyde valley], one of several early medieval Celtic or Welsh kingdoms in present-day S Scotland and N England. Strathclyde was in SW Scotland. To the east was the kingdom of Manaw Gododdin and to the south, Rheged. Little is known of the history of Strathclyde and the other Welsh (Cumbrian) kingdoms. The origin of Strathclyde is uncertain, but there is evidence that the kingdom had been consolidated by the middle of the 5th cent. In 945, King Edmund of Wessex defeated Strathclyde and awarded it to King Malcolm of Scotland; however, Scotland did not permanently absorb the kingdom until the 11th cent. The reason for the disappearance of the ancient British language and culture in the kingdoms is not definitely known. Dumbarton was the principal town in Strathclyde.

Bibliography

See J. Rhys, Celtic Britain (1882); F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (1947); P. H. Blair, An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England (1962).

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Strathclyde

Medieval Celtic kingdom, Scotland. Located south of the River Clyde, it was established in the 6th century. Its capital was Dumbarton. The Picts and Vikings ravaged the kingdom in the 8th–9th centuries. It suffered several defeats by the English, who took it over in the early 10th century. The Anglo-Saxon King Edmund I leased it in 945 to the Scots king Malcolm I. It became a province of Scotland in the 11th century after the death of its king, who had helped Malcolm II defeat the English at Carham.