to annexe the remainder of the western seaboard, which they did in 1266, with the Treaty of Perth. Orkney too was coming into the Scottish fold. In the 12th century, Mormaer Matad's son Harald was established on the Orkney Earldom. Thereafter, the Orkney earl (also Mormaer of Caithness) was just as much a Scottish vassal as a Norwegian one. Descendants of the Gaelic Mormaers of Angus ruled Orkney for much of the 13th century. In the early 14th century, another Scottish Gaelic noble, Maol Íosa V of Strathearn became Earl of Orkney, although formal Scottish sovereignty over the Northern Isles did not come for more than another century. The conquest of the west, the creation of the Mormaerdom of Carrick in 1186 and the absorption of the Lordship of Galloway after the Galwegian revolt of 1135 meant that the number and proportion of Gaelic speakers under the rule of the Scottish king actually increased, and perhaps even doubled, in the so-called Norman period. It was the Gaels and Gaelicised warriors of the new west, and the power they offered, that enabled King Robert I (himself a Gaelicised Scoto-Norman of Carrick) to emerge victorious during the Wars of Independence, which followed soon after the death of Alexander III. Notes References Citations Sources Primary sources ; republished, Marjorie Anderson (ed.) (Stamford, 1991) Secondary sources Reprinted in External links Primary sources Annals of Tigernach Annals of Ulster Chronicon Scotorum Secondary sources MacQueen "Laws and Languages" Kingdom of Scotland Celtic kingdoms Scotland in the High Middle Ages Alba Alba, Scotland Alba, Kingdom, Scotland 900 establishments 1280s disestablishments in Europe 9th-century establishments in Scotland 13th-century disestablishments in Scotland