Europe · The successor kingdoms
Kingdom of Strathclyde
drawn on the map AD 644–1033
In its early phase this Brittonic kingdom was called Alt Clut ("Rock of the Clyde"), after its citadel on Dumbarton Rock where the Leven meets the Clyde. It may have been founded by the Damnonii.
- Shown on the map
- AD 644–1033
- Peak area
- 11k km²
- Region
- Europe
Names and origin
In its early phase this Brittonic kingdom was called Alt Clut ("Rock of the Clyde"), after its citadel on Dumbarton Rock where the Leven meets the Clyde. It may have been founded by the Damnonii. It was the southern neighbour of the Picts; a famous early notice is St Patrick's letter (c. 450) rebuking King Ceretic (Coroticus) for raiding his Irish converts. Around 570 its king was Riderch Hael (Rhydderch), a figure of Welsh and Latin tradition.
The 870 siege and after
In 870 the Viking kings Amlaíb (Olaf) and Ímar of Dublin besieged Dumbarton for four months — an unusually long siege — and it fell when the water supply failed; they carried off many British, English and Pictish captives to slavery in Dublin. King Arthgal ap Dyfnwal was slain the following year. Thereafter the power-centre moved to Govan (with the royal residence perhaps at Partick), and the enlarged kingdom became known as Strathclyde (or, to the English, Cumbraland), expanding south into former Rheged. The Govan Stones attest its later ecclesiastical importance.
Absorption
Weakened after 870, Strathclyde increasingly fell under the influence of the Scottish kingdom of Alba and was absorbed into it by the 11th century, ending the last independent Brittonic kingdom outside Wales.
Common questions
- What was the Kingdom of Strathclyde?
- In its early phase this Brittonic kingdom was called Alt Clut ("Rock of the Clyde"), after its citadel on Dumbarton Rock where the Leven meets the Clyde. It may have been founded by the Damnonii.
- When is the Kingdom of Strathclyde shown on the map?
- The border data draws the Kingdom of Strathclyde AD 644–1033. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
- How large was the Kingdom of Strathclyde?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Kingdom of Strathclyde covered about 11,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each kingdom as the primary basis, with Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia, national heritage bodies (Historic Environment Wales and Scotland, the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust), museum sources and the Dictionary of Irish Biography, read against the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Bede and the Irish annals with their own biases. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Kingdom of Strathclyde en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Strathclyde
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
See the Kingdom of Strathclyde in its world
Open the atlas at AD 839 and every neighbour, rival and successor is on screen with it — then drag the slider and watch what happens next.
Open the map at AD 839 →