Such being the territorial divisions of Scotland at this period, we find, in place of each province being under the rule of a _Ri_ or king, with a subordinate division under a sub-king that, with the exception of _Arregaithel_ or Argyll, the rulers of the whole of these districts now bear the name of Mormaer or great Maer or Steward, while the Mormaer of Moreb or Moray appears occasionally under the title of _Ri_ or king. These Mormaers held a position in the scale of power and dignity inferior only to the _Ardri_ or supreme king. Thus, in narrating the great battle fought in 918 between the Danes and the people of Alban, in the reign of Constantin, son of Aedh, king of Alban, the Irish Annals tell us that neither their king nor any of their Mormaers fell by him;[51] and the Pictish Chronicle mentions in the same reign the death of Dubucan, son of Indrechtaig, Mormaer Ængusa, or of Angus.[52] In 965 Dubdon Satrapas Athochlach, that is, Governor of Athole, by which title the Mormaer is probably meant, fell in battle, according to the Pictish Chronicle. The same chronicle records in the reign of Cullen, who died in 970, the death of Maelbrigdi, son of Dubucan the Mormaer of Angus; and in 976 Tighernac tells us that three Mormaers of Alban, whose names he gives us as Cellach son of Findgaine, Cellach son of Baredha, and Duncan son of Morgaind, took part in a foray by one of the petty kings of Ireland against another.[53] The reign of Malcolm the Second, who ascended the throne in 1004, and whose thirty years’ rule over Alban was distinguished by the acquisition of the cismarine territories south of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, throws still further light upon the position of these provincial rulers. In the early part of his reign the great conflict took place between the Danes of Dublin and the native Irish under their great king Brian Boroimhe, which was to determine whether the Galls or foreign hordes of Scandinavia or the native Gaedheal were to retain possession of Ireland; a conflict terminated in favour of the Gaedheal when the battle of Clontarf was won in the year 1014 by Brian, the _Ardri_, or supreme king of Ireland, though, like some other victorious generals, he lost his own life in the struggle. In this great conflict we find the people of the provinces taking part on both sides; those in the possession of the Norwegians siding with the Danes, and those under native rule taking part with King Brian. To the assistance of the Danes came Sigurd, Norwegian Earl of Orkney, with the host of the Orkneys and of the Norwegian Islands, the Galls or Norwegians of Caithness and Mann. Skye, Lewis, Kintyre, and _Oirergaidhel_ or Argyll, are especially mentioned as being on the Danish side. On the other hand, ten Mormaers followed Brian with foreign auxiliaries, who probably represented the districts in Alban under native rule, and the leading man among them appears to have been Donald, son of Eimin, son of Cainnech, Mormaer of Mar, who