Malcolm, 6th Earl of Fife

Malcolm, 6th Earl of Fife (second from left) holds the sword during the enthronement of Alexander II. Late medieval depiction

Malcolm, 6th Earl of Fife (also Malcolm II Macduff ; Malcom II, Earl of Fife or Scottish Gaelic Máel Coluim II, Earl of Fife ) († 1266 ) was a Scottish magnate .

Malcolm came from the Scottish MacDuff clan . He was a son of Duncan , a younger son of Duncan, 4th Earl of Fife . After the childless death of his uncle of the same name Malcolm, 5th Earl of Fife around 1228, he inherited his possessions and the title of Earl of Fife . As an important nobleman, he testified to the Treaty of York , which the Scottish King Alexander II. 1237 with the English King Henry III. lock. Despite his high rank, Malcolm rarely witnessed other documents from the king. Even during the minority of King Alexander III. in the 1250s it played only a minor role. As Earl of Fife, he traditionally installed the young king at his enthronement in 1249, and in 1255 he also became a member of the Regency Council, which was to lead the government for the young king under the leadership of Alan Durward . But when this Regency Council was ousted in a power struggle from 1257 to 1258 by other nobles under the leadership of Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith , Malcolm apparently played no role, because he was neither punished nor favored by the new Regency Council and the young king. It did not play a role again until 1260, when he was one of the Scottish nobles whom the English king commissioned to escort his daughter, Queen Margaret of Scotland and her child safely back to Scotland. When in 1260 several Scottish magnates under the leadership of John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch Isabella, Countess of Menteith , the widow of Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith urged the surrender of their title and their lands, Malcolm presumably supported John Comyn. However, he attested only a few royal documents, and little is known about him from 1260 until his death.

He was married to Helen († 1295), a daughter of Dafydd ap Llywelyn , the Welsh prince of Gwynedd . He left several sons, including:

• Colban († around 1270)
• Macduff († 1298)

His heir became his eldest son Colban. After his death, Malcolm's widow married Donald , the earl of Mar's eldest son . Since Malcolm's son Colban was still a minor, the Earl of Mar gained considerable influence in Fife by the age of Colban.

Web links

Commons : Máel Coluim II, Earl of Fife  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• 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

Individual evidence

1. ^ 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. 573.
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. 583.
3. ^ 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.
4. ↑ Michael Brown: The wars of Scotland, 1214-1371 . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2004, ISBN 0-7486-1237-8 , p. 62.

predecessor	Office	successor
Malcolm	Earl of Fife around 1228-1266	Colban