Alan, Lord of Galloway

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Seal of Alan, Lord of Galloway

Alan, Lord of Galloway (also Alan fitz Roland ) (* before 1199, † around February 2, 1234 ) was a Scottish magnate .

Origin and heritage

Alan was the eldest son of Roland, Lord of Galloway and his wife Helen de Morville († 1217). He had two brothers, including Thomas, Earl of Atholl , and two sisters, one of whom was married to Ada Walter Bisset from Aboyne and Dervorguilla Nicholas de Stuteville († 1233) from Liddel in Cumbria . His father died in 1200, so that Alan became the heir to the Scottish rule of Galloway . In addition, his mother was the heir of her brother William de Morville , through whom Alan Lauderdale and Cunninghame inherited .

Worked as an Anglo-Scottish magnate

Alan was an influential nobleman as a magnate with possessions in England and Scotland and as a relative of the English King John Ohneland . He was loyal to the Scottish king, his overlord, but also pursued his own goals. As Lord of Galloway he had considerable military resources at his disposal. King John tried unsuccessfully in 1210 to get Alan to support his fleet for his campaign against the Lacy family in Ulster . In contrast, Alan wanted to support the king's campaign in Wales in 1211 with 1,000 soldiers, but the campaign was ultimately canceled. King John rewarded him in 1212 with the enfeoffment of the Irish rule Antrim . The king also wanted to win Alan's support in the fight against the local Irish chiefs. In relation to the Scottish kings, Alan was only obliged to loosely recognize their sovereignty and not as a feudal vassal . This allowed him to pursue an independent policy as long as he did not go against the interests of the Scottish kings. When Johann Ohneland was forced to accept the Magna Carta in Runnymede by an English aristocratic opposition in June 1215 , Alan was one of his entourage. But when the Scottish King Alexander II supported the English aristocratic opposition in the war of the barons against Johann Ohneland, Alan also sided with the rebels. Under his leadership, the Scots occupied Cumberland and Westmorland in 1215 before reverting to England after the peace treaty of 1217 .

Fight for man

From 1225 Alan interfered in the feud between King Ragnvald von Man and his half-brother Olaf in order to get the support of Ragnvald in the fight against the Lacys in Ireland. The Scottish Crown tacitly approved his policies because they also served Scottish interests. The prospect of obtaining a Scotland-friendly ruler of Man induced King Alexander II in 1226 to seek the marriage of Alan's illegitimate son Thomas to a daughter of Ragnvald. But when this intention became known on Man, there was a revolt against Ragnvald. Despite the support of ships and warriors from Galloway, Ragnvald lost the power struggle against Olaf and fell in the fight against the troops of his half-brother in 1229. When Alan subsequently tried to conquer Man for his son Thomas, riots and fighting broke out in the Hebrides and the western Highlands . From 1230 the Norwegian king Håkon IV supported Olaf, and only the support of Alexander II saved Alan from defeat. As a result, Alan had to give up his interference in the power struggle for Man in 1231 in order to end the war with Norway .

Funerary monument of Alan, Lord of Galloway at Dundrenny Abbey. 19th century drawing

Marriages, offspring and inheritance

Alan was married three times. In his first marriage he was married to a daughter of Roger de Lacy , Constable of Chester, whose name is unknown. With her he had a surviving daughter:

After 1209 he married Margaret († before 1228), the eldest daughter of David, Earl of Huntingdon . With her he had two surviving daughters:

After the death of his second wife, Alan married Rose de Lacy , daughter of the Irish magnate Hugh de Lacy, 1st Earl of Ulster, around 1229 . This marriage remained childless. He also had an illegitimate son:

Like his father, Alan had sponsored numerous monasteries, and in 1218 he himself founded the Premonstratensian Monastery of Tongland Abbey . After his death in 1234 he was buried in Dundrennan Abbey , where his damaged funerary monument has been preserved. Since he had no surviving sons from his marriages, the question of his successor had already weighed on his last years. His next male heir was his nephew Patrick, 5th Earl of Atholl . According to traditional Celtic law, his illegitimate son Thomas was also a possible heir, but according to feudal law, his three daughters were the legal heirs. All three had been married to important Anglo-Scottish nobles. The Scottish king preferred a division of inheritance among the daughters. On the one hand, he feared that Thomas would continue the conflict over Man as Lord of Galloway, on the other hand, he hoped that if Galloway were split up, he would no longer be able to enforce a loose supremacy, but an enfeoffment under feudal law. In fact, after Alan's death, Galloway was split up among his daughters. In 1235 a rebellion in favor of Thomas was forcibly suppressed. Thomas was imprisoned by his half-sisters in Barnard Castle , the castle of Dervorguilla's husband, John de Balliol. He was only released as an old man in 1296 after more than sixty years of imprisonment.

Web links

Commons : Alan of Galloway  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Brown: The wars of Scotland, 1214-1371 . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2004, ISBN 0-7486-1237-8 , p. 76.
  2. ^ Archibald AM Duncan: Scotland. The Making of the Kingdom (The Edinburgh History of Scotland; Vol. I ). Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1975. ISBN 0-05-00203-7-4 , p. 187.
  3. ^ Archibald AM Duncan: Scotland. The Making of the Kingdom (The Edinburgh History of Scotland; Vol. I ). Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1975. ISBN 0-05-00203-7-4 , p. 529.
  4. ^ Archibald AM Duncan: Scotland. The Making of the Kingdom (The Edinburgh History of Scotland; Vol. I ). Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1975. ISBN 0-05-00203-7-4 , p. 186.
  5. ^ GP Stell: John [John de Balliol] (c. 1248x50-1314). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
personal data
SURNAME Alan, Lord of Galloway
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alan fitz Roland
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish magnate
DATE OF BIRTH before 1199
DATE OF DEATH on February 2, 1234