Earl of Fife

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The Mormaer or Earl of Fife refers to the lord of a medieval Gaelic rule in Scotland , which roughly comprised the present-day counties of Fife and Kinross .

The hereditary British title of Earl Fife was awarded in 1759 in the Peerage of Ireland , that of Earl of Fife in 1885 in the Peerage of the United Kingdom .

The medieval Mormaers or Earls of Fife established themselves as the most influential Gaelic noblemen in the Kingdom of Scotland in the 12th century . They often held the office of Justiciar of Scotia and thus had the ceremonial right to coronate the Scottish kings. The Earls belonged to the MacDuff clan , were mostly their clan chiefs and resided at Macduff's Castle . The clan traces its ancestry back to the Scottish King Duff († 967).

history

Early Mormaers / Earls of Fife

Very little is known about the early Mormaers or Earls of Fife. The first Mormaer of Fife is Æthelred († before 1107), a younger son of King Malcolm III. which, however, cannot be precisely proven. Constantine Macduff is therefore considered to be the first Mormaer with certainty . The nickname Macduff indicates a descent from King Dubh , the only known well-known bearer of this name. According to the late medieval chroniclers John Fordun and Andrew Wyntoun , the Macduffs gained primarily through their support for the later King Malcolm III. against King Macbeth importance. According to Wyntoun's report, a Macduff of Fife by Malcolm III. have requested the privilege of having he and his successors crown the Kings of Scotland. The chronicler Fordun, however, reports that Malcolm III. Macduff had promised to be the most senior noble in Scotland. Both statements are historically very dubious. It is more likely that the Macduffs actually descended from King Dubh. At the time of the succession to the throne in Scotland the right of firstborn did not apply, but the succession to the throne by tanistry was common . The Macduffs waived their claims to the throne, for which they were considered the most distinguished family after the kings. The names common in the family, such as Duncan , Malcolm and, above all, Constantine , which were very rare in Scotland at the time, speak for this thesis . After the death of Earl Constantine around 1128, according to the traditional tanistry system, the title did not automatically fall to his eldest son, who was possibly still a minor, but to another family member of legal age. Duncan, 3rd Earl of Fife , who was possibly a son of Earl Constantine, took the Earldom Fife as a fiefdom from the Scottish Crown in 1136 . In return, he had to provide military support to the Scottish kings as a vassal in the event of war. On the other hand, after his death in 1154, he was able to bequeath the title in patrilineal line to his eldest son Duncan (II) . In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Earls of Fife were the richest of the Scottish magnates. During the minority of Duncan, 9th Earl of Fife in 1294 or 1295, the annual income from his estates was £ 432, the majority of which came from leases. The income of the richest Scottish earl was roughly that of a lesser English baron, but it was three times that of Niall, Earl of Carrick, who died in 1256 .

At the death of Duncan, 9th Earl of Fife in 1353, the title fell to his only daughter Isabella . She was married four times, but all of her spouses died childless. In 1371 she was persuaded by her brother-in-law from her second marriage, Robert Stewart, Earl of Menteith (1398 Duke of Albany ), to use him as her heir. She inherited her on her death around 1389. The Mormeardom / Earldom finally went out in 1425 when his son Murdoch Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany, was ostracized and executed for high treason against King James I.

Awards in the Peerage of Ireland and Peerage of the United Kingdom

On April 26, 1759 he was awarded the title of Earl Fife by King George II in the Peerage of Ireland to William Duff, 1st Baron Braco . Along with the earl dignity, he was also given the subordinate title Viscount Macduff . On July 28, 1735, he had been raised to Baron Braco , of Kilbryde in the County of Cavan.

His son, the 2nd Earl, was also awarded the title Baron Fife , of the County of Fife, on July 5, 1790 in the Peerage of Great Britain , which entitled him to a seat in the British House of Lords . The Barony of Fife expired on January 24, 1809, when the entrant died without children, while the Earldom and the other titles fell to his brother as 3rd Earl. His son, the 4th Earl, was also raised to Baron Fife , of the County of Fife, on April 28, 1827 in the Peerage of the United Kingdom , and thereby also received a seat in the British House of Lords. He also remained childless, so that the barony of Fife became extinct on his death on March 9, 1857. The remaining titles fell to his nephew as 5th Earl, who was raised on October 1, 1857 in the Peerage of the United Kingdom to Baron Skene , of Skene in the County of Aberdeen, and was given a seat in the British House of Lords.

His son, the 6th Earl Fife, was also awarded the title Earl of Fife on July 13, 1885 in the Peerage of the United Kingdom . On July 27, 1889, he married his third cousin, Princess Louise , daughter of King Edward VII. On July 29, 1889, he was also raised to Duke of Fife and Marquess of Macduff in the Peerage of the United Kingdom . Since the couple had no sons, on April 24, 1900, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, the titles Duke of Fife and Earl of Macduff were reassigned to him, with the special addition that, in the absence of male offspring, these were also given to his daughters and theirs male offspring are inheritable. Accordingly, the latter two titles fell on his death on January 29, 1912 to his older daughter Alexandra Duff , while the Earldoms of Fife and all his other titles lapsed.

List of the Earls of Fife

Early Mormaers / Earls of Fife

Earls Fife, bestowed 1759

Earl of Fife, conferred 1885

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ GWS Barrow: The Earls of Fife in the 12th Century . In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland , 87 (1952-53), p. 54.
  2. ↑ Andrew McDonald: Macduff family (per. C. 1095-1371). 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
  3. ↑ Andrew McDonald: Macduff family (per. C. 1095-1371). 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