14 Facts About Clan Armstrong

Clan Armstrong is a Scottish clan of the Scottish Borders.

Clan Armstrong was said to be the last Anglo-Danish Earl of Northumberland and a nephew of King Canute, the Danish king of England who reigned until 1035.

The Clan Armstrong name was common over the whole of Northumbria and the Scottish Borders.

Gilbert Clan Armstrong, served as steward of the household of David II of Scotland, Master of the Horse to the king, and ambassador to England in 1363.

Fourteen years later, John Clan Armstrong fought in the army of James, second Earl Douglas at the Battle of Otterburn.

In 1398, Alexander, David and Geoffrey Clan Armstrong committed their signatures as 'borowis' for the third Earl of Douglas in pledging to keep the peace on the border.

Finally, in 1610, clan leader Archibald Armstrong was hanged in Edinburgh in reprisal for a raid on Penrith, England followed by a brutal campaign by the Crown to pacify the Borders.

Clan Armstrong is amongst the fifty most common names in Ulster.

The professional soldier Sir Thomas Clan Armstrong settled in Ireland in 1639, was elected to the Dublin parliament and fought for the crown in the armies of the Earl of Ormonde and the Earl of Inchiquin.

Edwin Howard Clan Armstrong, the inventor of FM Radio, is a descendant.

Castles owned by the Clan Armstrong have included amongst many others:.

The Clan Armstrong name is sometimes rendered in Gaelic as follows:.

However, Clan Armstrong has been historically associated with the Ulster Gaelic name, Mac Trean-Labhraidh, a branch of the O Labhradha family.

Trean-Labhradh means strong-speaking but it is thought that the name was misunderstood as meaning strong-arm, and Clan Armstrong was adopted as a convenient Anglicization.