William fitz Duncan (a modern anglicisation of the Old FrenchGuillaume fils de Duncan and the Middle IrishUilleam mac Donnchada) was a Scottish prince, the son of King Duncan II of Scotland by his wife Ethelreda of Dunbar. He was a territorial magnate in northern Scotland and northern England and a military leader.
In 1094, his father King Duncan II was killed by MormaerMáel Petair of Mearns, supporting the claims of King Domnall (Donald) III Bán. It is probable that his mother Ethelreda took the infant William and fled Scotland to the safety of Allerdale in Cumberland where her brother Waltheof of Allerdale was lord. William, an only child, grew up there among his cousins. A decade or so later, he ventured to the court of his half-uncle.
Under the reign of his half-uncle Alexander I, it is highly likely that William was regarded as a viable tánaiste (i.e. "designated heir"),[citation needed] but Henry I of England supported David. When David succeeded, William, as the legitimate king under the rules of primogeniture was certainly bought off by David, probably being made tánaiste.[citation needed] William repeatedly leads the lists of witnesses appearing in Scottish royal charters in the reigns of Alexander I and David I.
A 13th century northern English source claims that William was Mormaer of Moray. As this source had no reason to deceive, it is highly likely that William was made the ruler of Moray after the defeat of King Óengus of Moray in 1130. It is feasible that this grant had something to do with the coming of age of David's son, Prince Henry and may also be a factor in his marriage to a daughter of Óengus. As well as being the ruler of Moray, William controlled the English lands of Allerdale, Skipton and Craven, making him one of the greatest barons of northern England.
William was a great warrior. His uncle, King David, frequently tasked William with leading his armies in battle.[1] He frequently led Scottish armies. In the campaign of 1138, he led an army of Gaels that defeated a Norman English army at the Battle of Clitheroe, raising the hopes for the success of the royal army, hopes which failed to materialize at the Battle of the Standard.
William had several marriages. His first marriage was over, presumably through death, by the year 1137, when he married Alice, daughter of William Meschin.[2] By the latter, he had a son, also called William (William of Egremont or William the Atheling), who died in 1160, and three daughters, including Cicely, Lady of Skipton, who married William le Gros, 1st Earl of Albemarle. His marriage brought him the lordship of Copeland, of which his wife was co-heiress.[1]
Alexander I, posthumously nicknamed The Fierce, was the King of Alba (Scotland) from 1107 to his death. He was the fifth son of Malcolm III and his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Edward Ætheling, a prince of the pre-conquest English royal house.
David I or Dauíd mac Maíl Choluim was a 12th century ruler and saint who was Prince of the Cumbrians from 1113 to 1124 and later King of Scotland from 1124 to 1153. The youngest son of King Malcolm III and Queen Margaret, David spent most of his childhood in Scotland but was exiled to England temporarily in 1093. Perhaps after 1100, he became a dependent at the court of King Henry I of England, by whom he was influenced.
Donnchad mac Máel Coluim was King of Alba. He was son of Malcolm III and his first wife Ingibiorg Finnsdottir, widow of Thorfinn Sigurdsson, earl of Orkney.
Malcolm IV, nicknamed Virgo, "the Maiden" was King of Scotland from 1153 until his death. He was the eldest son of Henry, Earl of Huntingdon and Northumbria and Ada de Warenne. The original Malcolm Canmore, a name now associated with his great-grandfather Malcolm III, he succeeded his grandfather David I, and shared David's Anglo-Norman tastes.
Wimund was a bishop who became a seafaring warlord adventurer in the years after 1147. His story is passed down to us by 12th-century English historian William of Newburgh in his Historia rerum anglicarum, Book I, Chapter 24 entitled "Of bishop Wimund, his life unbecoming a bishop, and how he was deprived of his sight".
Lochlann of Galloway, also known as Lochlan mac Uchtred and by his French name Roland fitz Uhtred, was the son and successor of Uchtred, Lord of Galloway as the "Lord" or "sub-king" of eastern Galloway.
Moray was a province within the area of modern-day Scotland, that may at times up to the 12th century have operated as an independent kingdom or as a power base for competing claimants to the Kingdom of Alba. It covered a much larger territory than the modern council area of Moray, extending approximately from the River Spey in the east to the River Beauly in the north, and encompassing Badenoch, Lochaber and Glenelg in the south and west.
Óengus of Moray was the last king of Moray of the native line, ruling Moray in what is now northeastern Scotland from an unknown date until his death in 1130.
The Kingdom of Alba was the Kingdom of Scotland between the deaths of Donald II in 900 and of Alexander III in 1286. The latter's death led indirectly to an invasion of Scotland by Edward I of England in 1296 and the First War of Scottish Independence.
The Meic Uilleim (MacWilliams) were the Gaelic descendants of William fitz Duncan, grandson of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, king of Scots. They were excluded from the succession by the descendants of Máel Coluim's son David I during the 12th century and raised a number of rebellions to vindicate their claims to the Mormaerdom of Moray and perhaps to the rule of Scotland.
The MacHeths were a Celtic kindred who raised several rebellions against the kings of Scotland in the 12th and 13th centuries. Their origins have long been debated.
Harald Maddadsson was Earl of Orkney and Mormaer of Caithness from 1139 until 1206. He was the son of Matad, Mormaer of Atholl, and Margaret, daughter of Earl Haakon Paulsson of Orkney. Of mixed Norse and Gaelic blood, and a descendant of Scots kings, he was a significant figure in northern Scotland, and played a prominent part in Scottish politics of the twelfth century. The Orkneyinga Saga names him one of the three most powerful Earls of Orkney along with Sigurd Eysteinsson and Thorfinn Sigurdsson.
Political and military events in Scotland during the reign of David I are the events which took place in Scotland during David I of Scotland's reign as King of Scots, from 1124 to 1153. When his brother Alexander I of Scotland died in 1124, David chose, with the backing of Henry I of England, to take the Kingdom of Alba for himself. David was forced to engage in warfare against his rival and nephew, Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair. Subduing the latter took David ten years, and involved the destruction of Óengus, mormaer of Moray. David's victory allowed him to expand his control over more distant regions theoretically part of the Kingdom. In this he was largely successful, although he failed to bring the Earldom of Orkney into his kingdom.
Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair was an illegitimate son of Alexander I of Scotland, and was an unsuccessful pretender to the Scottish throne. He is a relatively obscure figure owing primarily to the scarcity of source material, appearing only in pro-David English sources, which label him a "bastard".
Gofraid mac Domnaill, was a thirteenth-century Scottish rebel. The son of Domnall, his father's surname was almost certainly MacWilliam though Bane has been proposed.
William of Douglas was a medieval nobleman living in Clydesdale, an area under the control of the King of the Scots.
Ethelreda, Etheldreda or Ethreda was a daughter of Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria remembered in 13th century Cumberland as the mother of William fitz Duncan.
Waltheof of Allerdale was an 11th- and 12th-century Anglo-Saxon noble, lord of Allerdale in modern Cumbria. Brother of Dolfin of Carlisle and Gospatric of Dunbar, Waltheof was son of Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria. Both Waltheof and his brother Gospatric witness Earl David's Glasgow Inquest 1113 x 1124, and Waltheof also attests some of David's charters as king of the Scots later. The account of Waltheof and his family in Cumbrian monastic cartularies, says that he gave land in Allerdale to his three sisters, Octreda, Gunhilda and Maud.
Robert de Romille was an adventurer from Brittany who joined the Normans in their Conquest of Britain. After 1086 King William I made him lord of the estates of Bolton Abbey. Romille built the first Skipton Castle in 1090 to repel the expansions of Malcolm III of Scotland. In 1102 Romille's lands were greatly increased by Henry I of England to include all of upper Wharfedale and upper Airedale. His male line died out before 1310; but by his daughters he has many descendants today.
The Treaty of Abernethy was signed at the Scottish village of Abernethy in 1072 by King Malcolm III of Scotland and by William of Normandy.
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