Magnus of Angus

Magnus of Angus (also Magnus (II), Earl of Caithness and Earl or Jarl of Orkney (* between 1175 and 1185; † 1239 ) was a Scottish nobleman.

origin

The origin of Magnus is unclear. He probably came from the Earls of Angus family, but its exact origin is unclear. He probably belonged to the branch of the family that had already provided a short-term Earl of Caithness with Harald Ungi , who was killed in 1198 . He was perhaps a younger son of Gillebride, 1st Earl of Angus or of his son Gille Críst, 3rd Earl of Angus . Or maybe he was a younger son of Malcolm, 5th Earl of Angus . On his mother's side he was probably a descendant of Ingrid, a daughter of Orkney jarl Rögnvald Kali Kolsson .

Ascent to the Earl of Caithness and Jarl of Orkney

After John Haraldson, Earl of Caithness and Jarl of Orkney were murdered in 1231, his successor was unclear. Caithness was under the sovereignty of the Scottish kings, while Orkney was under the sovereignty of the kings of Norway, to whose empire the West Scottish Hebrides belonged. In documents of the Scottish King Alexander II , Malcolm, 5th Earl of Angus, then on July 7th 1235 Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith was named Earl of Caithness . Thereafter, in 1235 or 1236 Caithness was given to Magnus, receiving the earldom in two parts. On July 26, 1236, Magnus witnessed a charter from the Scottish King Alexander II in Inverness . He was the first Earl of Caithness to testify to a charter from a Scottish king. Around 1236 the Norwegian king confirmed Håkon IV as Jarl of Orkney .

heritage

Magnus died a few years later. According to Scottish law, his heiresses were the daughters of Johanna , who may have been a daughter of John Haraldson, and her husband Freskin de Moravia , a nephew of the Earl of Sutherland . One of these daughters was married to John Comyn, Earl of Angus , whose relative Walter Comyn had briefly been dubbed Earl of Caithness in 1235. However, since the daughters were not entitled to inheritance under Nordic law, another male member of the Angus family received Gilbert Caithness and Orkney.

literature

• Mike Ashley: Magnus II. In: The Mammoth Book of British Kings & Queens. Robinson Publishing, London 1998, ISBN 1-84119-096-9 , pp. 541-543.

Web links

• Magnus of Angus. fmg.ac, accessed on April 17, 2019 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Barbara E. Crawford: The Earldom of Caithness and the kingdom of Scotland, 1150-1266 . In: KJ Stringer (Ed.): Essays on the Nobility of Medieval Scotland , John Donald Publishers, Edinburgh 1985, ISBN 0-85976-113-4 , p. 34.
2. ↑ Barbara E. Crawford: The Earldom of Caithness and the kingdom of Scotland, 1150-1266 . In: KJ Stringer (Ed.): Essays on the Nobility of Medieval Scotland , John Donald Publishers, Edinburgh 1985, ISBN 0-85976-113-4 , p. 37.

predecessor	Office	successor
vacant (until 1231 John Haraldson )	Jarl of Orkney Earl of Caithness around 1236–1239	Gilbert