Domhnall, 6th Earl of Mar

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Domhnall, 6th Earl of Mar ( Anglicized also Donald , * 1250, † after 25. July 1297 ) was a Scottish magnate .

Origin and heritage

Domhnall was the eldest son of Uilleam, 5th Earl of Mar and his first wife Elizabeth Comyn . On September 29, 1270 he was by King Alexander III. Knighted in Scone . His father died before 1281. Domhnall came into his inheritance and was raised to Earl of Mar , making him one of the leading Scottish magnates. In the 1280s he attested numerous royal documents.

Role in the Scottish succession dispute

Together with other Scottish nobles, Mar confirmed on July 25, 1281 the marriage contract between the king's daughter Margaret and King Erik II of Norway . After the death of Alexander , the only son of Alexander III., Mar was one of the nobles in Scone who recognized Margaret , the daughter of Margaret and Erik, as the Scottish heir to the throne if the king died without further descendants. However, he apparently declared himself ready in an agreement made between 1287 and 1289 with Robert de Brus, Lord of Annandale, to support his claim to the throne. Together with numerous other Scottish barons and prelates , Mar turned to the English King Edward I in March 1290. They agreed to negotiate a marriage between the English king's son Edward and the Scottish heir to the throne Margarete. In July 1290, Mar signed the relevant treaty of Birgham in Berwickshire . After the sudden death of Margaret during the crossing from Norway to Scotland in September 1290, he then belonged to the small circle of nobles who appointed the Guardians of Scotland until a new king was elected . Since the Scottish royal family was in direct line extinct, there were several contenders for the Scottish throne . Mar is said to have raised troops to support Robert de Brus' claim to the throne. He was involved in the so-called appeal of the seven Scottish Earls, who spoke out against a hasty appointment of John Balliol as Scottish King. Mar had close family ties with the Brus family. His daughter Isabel married Robert , a grandson of Brus, in the mid-1290s , and presumably his son Gartnait married a granddaughter of Brus. In the Great Cause , the negotiation of the future King of Scotland, Mar played an important role. On June 13, 1291, he and numerous other nobles swore allegiance to the English king in Upsettlington in Berwickshire, whereupon he was appointed by Brus to one of the forty judges he was allowed to name in the Great Cause. On July 3, 1292 he testified to the protest of the English king in Berwick and his claim to suzerainty over Scotland. Eventually the English king decided that the Scottish crown should go to John Balliol.

Role in war with England

In June 1294, the English king, overlord of Scotland, called on the Scottish King John, Mar and other Scottish nobles to serve in the French-English War . You should join the English army in London. The Scots did not comply with this request, instead they sent short letters of apology, which the English king did not accept. When the Scots were preparing for a rebellion against English supremacy in 1295, Mar was a member of the twelve-member council that was supposed to advise King John, but which in fact assumed power. In February 1296 he sealed the Treaty of Paris , with which Scotland concluded an alliance with France. Then it came to open war with England . After the English victory in the Battle of Dunbar in 1296, Mar submitted to the English king at Montrose and again swore allegiance to him in Berwick. Nevertheless, the English king ordered him to follow him to England. In June 1297 he received permission to visit Scotland, but the English king asked him to promise that he would take part in the campaign to Flanders in the war with France. After that, Domhnall is no longer mentioned, presumably he had died.

Marriage and offspring

Mar had married Elena , an illegitimate daughter of the Welsh Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd , according to other sources she was Helen , a daughter of his grandfather Dafydd ap Llywelyn . She was the widow of Malcolm, 6th Earl of Fife . He had at least four children with her:

A daughter Mary is said to have married Kenneth Sutherland, 4th Earl of Sutherland . This Mary is possibly identical to Marjory and married Sutherland after the execution of John of Strathbogie in 1306. In December 1297 an Alexander, son of the Earl of Mar, was imprisoned in the Tower of London on the orders of Edward I. It is unclear whether Alexander was a son or a grandson of Domhnall.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Personal data according to The Scots Peerage
  2. ^ Alan Young: Noble Families and Political Factions in the Reign of Alexander III . In: Norman H. Reid (ed.): Scotland in the Reign of Alexander III, 1249-1286 . Edinburgh, John Donald 1990, ISBN 0-85976-218-1 , p. 11.
  3. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 27.
  4. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 42.
  5. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, pp. 62-63.
  6. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 34.
  7. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 93.
  8. ↑ Helen ferch Dafydd on thepeerage.com , accessed February 7, 2019.
  9. ↑ Michael Brown: The wars of Scotland, 1214-1371 . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2004, ISBN 0-7486-1237-8 , p. 62.
predecessor Office successor
Uilleam Earl of Mar
before 1281 – after 1297 		Gartnait
personal data
SURNAME Domhnall, 6th Earl of Mar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Donald, 6th Earl of Mar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish magnate
DATE OF BIRTH around 1250
DATE OF DEATH after July 25, 1297