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The Mormaer or Earl of Buchan was originally the provincial ruler of the medieval province of Buchan. Buchan was the first Mormaerdom in the High Medieval Kingdom of the Scots to pass into the hands of a non-Scottish family in the male line. The earldom had three lines in its history, not counting passings from female heirs to sons. Today, it is held by the Erskine family as a peerage. The current holder is Harry Erskine, 18th Earl of Buchan. Subsidiary titles are Lord Cardross and Lord Auchterhouse and Baron Erskine.
The Earl of Fife or Mormaer of Fife was the ruler of the province of Fife in medieval Scotland, which encompassed the modern counties of Fife and Kinross. Due to their royal ancestry, the earls of Fife were the highest ranking nobles in the realm, and had the right to crown the king of Scots.
The Mormaer or Earl of Menteith was the ruler of the province of Menteith in the Middle Ages. The first mormaer is usually regarded as Gille Críst, simply because he is the earliest on record. The title was held in a continuous line from Gille Críst until Muireadhach IV, although the male line was broken on two occasions. A truncated version of the earldom was given two years later to Malise Graham, 1st Earl of Menteith, in compensation for loss of the Earldom of Strathearn, which was a likely result of the execution of the Duke of Albany.
Donnchadh IV, Earl of Fife [Duncan IV] (1289–1353) was a Scottish nobleman who was Guardian of Scotland and the last native Scottish Mormaer of Fife from 1289 until his death.
Muireadach II of Menteith, ruled 1213–1231, was the son of Gille Críst and the third known Mormaer of Menteith. Muireadach gained the Mormaerdom by challenging the rights of the current Mormaer, his elder brother, also called Muireadhach, hence Muireadhch Mór. The case apparently went to arbitration, and the king decided on the right of Muireadhch Óg. On 13 December 1213, Muireadhach Mór resigned the Mormaerdom, taking lesser lands and titles in compensation.
John Comyn II of Badenoch, Lord of Badenoch, nicknamed the Black Comyn, was a Scottish nobleman, a Guardian of Scotland, and one of the six Regents for Margaret, Maid of Norway. His father was John Comyn I of Badenoch.
The Lord of Badenoch was a magnate who ruled the lordship of Badenoch in the 13th century and early 14th century. The lordship may have been created out of the territory of the Meic Uilleim, after William Comyn, jure uxoris Earl of Buchan, Justiciar of Scotia and Warden of Moray defeated Gille Escoib MacUilleim. However, there is no evidence that the Meic Uilleim held lands in this area. After the death of John III in 1306, the lordship was taken into royal hands, although it was still claimed by his son John. The Lordship was included in the vast Earldom of Moray when it was resurrected for Thomas Randolph.
William Comyn was Lord of Badenoch and Earl of Buchan. He was one of the seven children of Richard Comyn, Justiciar of Lothian, and Hextilda of Tynedale. He was born in Scotland, in Altyre, Moray in 1163 and died in Buchan in 1233 where he is buried in Deer Abbey.
Alexander Comyn, 2nd Earl of Buchan was a Scoto-Norman magnate who was one of the most important figures in the 13th century Kingdom of Scotland. He was the son of William Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, and Marjory, Countess of Buchan, the heiress of the last native Scottish Mormaer of Buchan, Fergus. He was the chief counsellor of Alexander III, King of Alba (Scotland) for the entire period of the king's majority and as Scotland's leading magnate, played a key role in safeguarding the independence of the Scottish monarchy. During his long career, Alexander Comyn was Justiciar of Scotia (1258–1289), Constable of Scotland (1275–1289), Sheriff of Wigtown (1263–1266), Sheriff of Dingwall (1264–1266), Baillie of Inverie and finally, Guardian of Scotland (1286–1289) during the first interregnum following the death of Alexander III. In 1284 he joined with other Scottish noblemen who acknowledged Margaret of Norway as the heiress to King Alexander. He died sometime after 10 July 1289.
Alan Hostarius was the son of Thomas de Lundin, a grandson of Gille Críst, Mormaer of Mar. His mother's name is unknown, but she was almost certainly a daughter of Máel Coluim, Mormaer of Atholl, meaning that Alan was the product of two Gaelic comital families.
Maire inghean Mhuireadhaich or Mary, daughter of Muireadhach II, Mormaer of Menteith, was Countess of Menteith, successor to her sister Isabella (Iosbail). She inherited the title from her father, and married Walter Bailloch, son of Walter Stewart, 3rd High Steward of Scotland. By the time of the death of Walter Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, jure uxoris Earl of Menteith in 1258, she may have already been married. In 1260, Isabella was arrested, along with her new husband, an English knight called John Russell, for the poisoning of her late husband; by the month of April 1261, Walter and Mary were ruling the province as Count and Countess.
Isabella, Countess of Menteith was the eldest daughter of Muireadhach II, Mormaer of Menteith. When the old mormaer died without legitimate male heir in 1233, the province passed to Isabella.
John Comyn, 3rd Earl of Buchan was a chief opponent of Robert the Bruce in the civil war that paralleled the War of Scottish Independence. He should not be confused with the better known John III Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, who was his cousin, and who was killed by Bruce in Dumfries in March 1306. Confusion between the two men has affected the study of this period of history.
John Comyn (Cumyn) was Lord of Badenoch in Scotland. He was Justiciar of Galloway in 1258. He held lands in Nithsdale and Tynedale.
Henry de Hastings of Ashill, Norfolk, was a supporter of Simon de Montfort in his rebellion against King Henry III. He led the Londoners at the Battle of Lewes in 1264, where he was taken prisoner, and fought at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, where de Montfort was killed. He resisted King Henry III's extensive siege of Kenilworth and after the Dictum of Kenilworth he commanded the last remnants of the baronial party when they made their last stand in the Isle of Ely, but submitted to the king in July 1267. In 1264 he was created a supposed baron by de Montfort, which title had no legal validity following the suppression of the revolt.
Clement was a 13th-century Dominican friar who was the first member of the Dominican Order in Britain and Ireland to become a bishop. In 1233, he was selected to lead the ailing diocese of Dunblane in Scotland, and faced a struggle to bring the bishopric of Dunblane to financial viability. This involved many negotiations with the powerful religious institutions and secular authorities which had acquired control of the revenue that would normally have been the entitlement of Clement's bishopric. The negotiations proved difficult, forcing Clement to visit the papal court in Rome. While not achieving all of his aims, Clement succeeded in saving the bishopric from relocation to Inchaffray Abbey. He also regained enough revenue to begin work on the new Dunblane Cathedral.
Walter Bailloch, also known as Walter Bailloch Stewart, was distinguished by the sobriquet Bailloch or Balloch, a Gaelic nickname roughly translated as "the freckled". He was the Earl of Menteith jure uxoris.
Alexander of Menteith, a Scottish nobleman and member of the Stewart family, he was the Earl of Menteith.
William Comyn of Kirkintilloch was a 13th-century Scottish nobleman. He was a son of John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch and possibly Alicia de Ros.
Sir John Russell, was an Anglo-Scottish noble. He was a younger son of John Russell of Kingston Russell and Dyrham and Rohesia Bardolf.
References
- Tout, Thomas Frederick (1887). . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 11. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Paul, James Balfour, The Scots Peerage , Vol. VI, (Edinburgh, 1909)
- Young, Alan, Robert the Bruce's Rivals: The Comyns, 1213-1314, (East Linton, 1997)