The Guardians of Scotland were regents who governed the Kingdom of Scotland from 1286 until 1292 and from 1296 until 1306. During the many years of minority in Scotland's subsequent history, there were many guardians of Scotland and the post was a significant constitutional feature in the course of development for politics in the country.
Giric, if he is the Gregorius of Walter Bower, is the eleventh alleged Bishop of St Andrews. This Gregorius is mentioned in the bishop-list of Walter Bower as the successor of Bishop Fothad II. Bower's most recent editors commented that "there is no evidence to prove that any bishop of St Andrews was consecrated between 1093 and 1109". In the late 1990s, the University of Glasgow historian Dauvit Broun, by looking through the manuscripts afresh, recovered the previously unknown last 20% of Version-A of the St. Andrews Foundation Legend, a text composed at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries. In it, a few of the contemporary church's leading men are named, and one of these is "Archbishop Giric".
Guillaume or William de Malveisin was Chancellor of Scotland, Bishop of Glasgow (1199/1200–1202) and then Bishop of St. Andrews (1202–1238).
Roger de Beaumont was Bishop of St Andrews.
William de Lamberton, sometimes modernized as William Lamberton, was Bishop of St Andrews from 1297 until his death. Lamberton is renowned for his influential role during the Scottish Wars of Independence. He campaigned for the national cause under William Wallace and later Robert the Bruce. As Bishop of St Andrews, the most powerful seat in Scotland, Bishop Lamberton along with Bishop Robert Wishart of Glasgow conducted the coronation of Robert the Bruce as King Robert I. Lamberton would go on to have a vital role in the formulation of the Declaration of the Clergy 1310 and the Declaration of Arbroath which would lead to Scottish Independence.
Robert of Scone was a 12th-century bishop of Cell Rígmonaid. Robert's exact origins are unclear. He was an Augustinian canon at the Priory of St. Oswalds, at Nostell. His French name indicates a Norman rather than an Anglo-Saxon origin, but as he was likely born in the later 11th century, this may be due merely to the acculturation of his parents.
Robert Wishart was Bishop of Glasgow during the Wars of Scottish Independence and a leading supporter of Sir William Wallace and King Robert Bruce. For Wishart and many of his fellow churchmen, the freedom of Scotland and the freedom of the Scottish church were one and the same thing. His support for the national cause was to be of crucial importance at some critical times.
John Scotus was a 12th-century bishop of St. Andrews and Dunkeld.
Hugh the Chaplain was the royal Chaplain of King William I of Scotland before becoming Bishop of Cell Rígmonaid (St Andrews), the highest ranking Scottish see of the period. After the death of Bishop Richard, King William selected Hugh to succeed to the bishopric in 1178. However, unbeknown to the king, the chapter elected their archdeacon, John l'Escot, as bishop. The king saw to Hugh's election and consecration in the same year. There followed a five-year struggle for the bishopric. John travelled to appeal to Pope Alexander III, who quashed the case of Hugh and sent to Scotland a man named Alexius as legate. Alexius obtained entrance to William's kingdom, and consecrated John at Holyrood Abbey in the presence of four other Scottish bishops, in the year 1180. Nevertheless, the struggle continued, and in 1183, both John and Hugh resigned their rights. Despite the fact that Hugh received the bishopric and John took the Bishopric of Dunkeld in compensation, dispute over revenues continued. When Hugh refused to answer his summons to Rome in 1186, he was suspended and excommunicated, with the diocese being put under interdict. Hugh travelled to Rome and obtained absolution, but he died of the pestilence in that city a few days later.
Galfredus, Galfred or Geoffrey de Liberatione was Bishop of Dunkeld and Bishop-postulate of St Andrews. He was a clerk to King Alexander II of Scotland as early as 1219, as well as being a canon of Dunkeld and precentor of Glasgow. He was elected to the bishopric of Dunkeld in 1236. After an investigation by Pope Gregory IX regarding a defect of birth possessed by Galfred, he was confirmed as bishop in sometime in 1237.
Robert de Stuteville was Bishop-elect of St Andrews and Bishop of Dunkeld. Robert was dean of Dunkeld as early as 1253, when he was elected to the bishopric of St Andrews on 28 June that year. His election was opposed by the king, Alexander III, and by the bishopric's Céli Dé chapter. The prior and the canons sent Robert to Rome, but a delegation of the king, including Abel de Golynn, was also sent, and the result was that Robert's election was quashed.
James Kennedy was a 15th-century Bishop of Dunkeld and Bishop of St. Andrews, who participated in the Council of Florence and was the last man to govern the diocese of St. Andrews purely as bishop. One of the Gaelic clan of Carrick he became an important figure in the government of the minority of King James III of Scotland as well as founder of St Salvator's College, St Andrews.
Jocelin was a twelfth-century Cistercian monk and cleric who became the fourth Abbot of Melrose before becoming Bishop of Glasgow, Scotland. He was probably born in the 1130s, and in his teenage years became a monk of Melrose Abbey. He rose in the service of Abbot Waltheof, and by the time of the short abbacy of Waltheof's successor Abbot William, Jocelin had become prior. Then in 1170 Jocelin himself became abbot, a position he held for four years. Jocelin was responsible for promoting the cult of the emerging Saint Waltheof, and in this had the support of Enguerrand, Bishop of Glasgow.
Walter Capellanus was an important cleric and politician in the Kingdom of Scotland during the reigns of kings William the Lion and Alexander II.
Robert Blackadder was a medieval Scottish cleric, diplomat and politician, who was abbot of Melrose, bishop-elect of Aberdeen and bishop of Glasgow; when the last was elevated to archiepiscopal status in 1492, he became the first ever archbishop of Glasgow. Archbishop Robert Blackadder died on 28 July 1508, while en route to Jerusalem on pilgrimage.
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.
Robert de Prebenda was a 13th-century Anglo-French cleric who was a Bishop of Dunblane, Scotland.
Historical treatment of David I and the Scottish church usually emphasises King David I of Scotland's pioneering role as the instrument of diocesan reorganisation and Norman penetration, beginning with the bishopric of Glasgow while David was Prince of the Cumbrians, and continuing further north after David acceded to the throne of Scotland. As well as this and his monastic patronage, focus too is usually given to his role as the defender of the Scottish church's independence from claims of overlordship by the Archbishop of York and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Andrew Stewart was a 15th-century Scottish prelate and administrator.
Alexander Rose (1647–1720) was a Scottish scholar, minister and bishop. He was a Church of Scotland minister before becoming Professor of Divinity at the University of Glasgow and Principal of St Mary's College, St Andrews. He rose to become Bishop of Moray and then Bishop of Edinburgh. He was responsible for failing to convince King William III of England that the Scottish bishops could be trusted, leading to the abolition of Episcopacy in Scotland. Rose continued as a nonjuring bishop, eventually becoming leader of the informal and embryonic Scottish Episcopal Church.
