Roland, Lord of Galloway

Roland Fitz Uhtred, Lord of Galloway ( Scottish Gaelic Lochlann , * before 1150; † December 19, 1200 in Northampton ) was a Scottish magnate .

origin

Roland was the eldest son of Uhtred, Lord of Galloway and his wife Gunnilda . As a youth he was called Lachlan, but as an adult he preferred the Anglo-Norman form of the name. He is mentioned for the first time in a document from his father around 1165, so that he was at least fifteen years old at that time. In 1174 there was a bitter conflict between Roland's father and his half-brother Gilbert over the rule in Galloway . Uhtred came under the control of Gilbert and was cruelly murdered.

Battle for Galloway

The English King Henry II , who was related to Roland's father, initially refused to negotiate with Gilbert because of the murder and instructed the Scottish King Wilhelm , who actually had control over Galloway, to subdue the region. With the help of Scottish troops and friends of his father's, Roland might be able to gain control of eastern Galloway by October 1176. Then Gilbert submitted to the English king. Although he continued to be openly hostile to the Scottish king thereafter, Gilbert retained control of western Galloway under English protection. Roland apparently spent a lot of time at the Scottish royal court after 1174. When Gilbert died in early 1185, Roland was able to conquer the possessions of Gilbert with the tacit tolerance of the Scottish king and with the support of Scottish knights, thereby robbing Gilbert's son Duncan of his inheritance. On July 4, 1185, Roland defeated and killed in battle the posse of a Gillepatrick , possibly a son of Dunegal of Nithsdale , and on September 30, 1185, he defeated Gillecolm , another former supporter of Gilbert. However, Roland's younger brother was also killed in the fighting. The attack on Galloway was carried out without the consent of Henry II. This was now in a difficult situation, because he owed both the Scottish king and Duncan, who lived as his hostage, but also as his ward in England, support. Henry II therefore moved with an army to Carlisle in northern England in July or August 1186 to subdue Roland. The Scottish king then undertook two campaigns to Galloway. Finally the king was able to bring Roland to Heinrich II. Together they reached an understanding in which both the English and the Scottish kings could save face. Roland was confirmed as Lord of Galloway. He had to pay homage to the English king and swear an oath of allegiance to him, but still remained a subject of the Scottish king. Gilbert's son Duncan finally received the Carrick bordering Galloway from the Scottish king as a fief.

The ruins of the Glenluce Abbey founded by Roland

Relationship to the Scottish Crown

In 1187 Roland led troops to northern Scotland, where Donald Macwilliam rebelled against the Scottish king. On July 31, Roland defeated Macwilliam's army at the Battle of Mam Garvia , an unidentified location near Inverness . Macwilliam was killed in the process. Probably in order to consolidate the royal rule in south-west Scotland, the Scottish King appointed Roland before 1190 as the first justiciar of Galloway. During Roland's reign in Galloway, the Anglo-Norman influence increased there. Few of his documents have survived, but they show that he gave lands in Galloway to several of his Cumbrian relatives. These should help him to keep the reunited rule under control. The church should also consolidate his rule. He had made a foundation in favor of Holme Cultram Abbey in 1184 at the latest, before the victory over the followers of Gilbert . Around 1192 he founded the Cistercian settlement of Glenluce as a subsidiary of Dundrennan. The new monastery was located in the middle of the former possessions of his uncle Gilbert. But there is no evidence that Roland purposefully replaced the native Celtic nobility with Anglo-Norman. Instead, his family's power was clearly based on the support of the Celtic nobility. As a result, he retained a relatively large degree of independence from the Scottish king.

Already before 1185 Roland Helen de Morville († 1217), a daughter of Richard de Morville , the Anglo-Norman baron of Lauderdale and Cunningham married. In 1196 he allegedly offered the Scottish king 700 Merks and thus inherited his possessions in Scotland and England after the childless death of his brother-in-law William de Morville . He also took over the court office of the Constable of Scotland from the Morvilles . There is hardly any evidence that Roland exercised the office on a large scale, but as a constable he was probably part of King Wilhelm's entourage when he swore allegiance to King John Ohneland for his English possessions in Lincoln in November 1200 . From Lincoln, Roland traveled on to Northampton , where he began a lawsuit over his wife's inheritance claims to property in England. However, he died a little later and was buried in St Andrew's Priory in the city.

progeny

Roland had five children with his wife, four of whom reached adulthood, including:

• Alan, Lord of Galloway († 1234);
• Thomas († 1231);
• Devorguilla of Galloway ⚭ Nicholas de Stuteville († 1233);
• Ada ⚭ 1233 Walter Bisset .

Roland's eldest son Alan inherited Galloway, while the younger son Thomas initially served as a mercenary leader and then became Earl of Atholl by marriage .

literature

• John Anderson: Roland of Galloway . In: James Balfour Paul (Ed.): The Scots Peerage . tape 4 : Fife-Hyndford . David Douglas, Edinburgh 1907, p. 138–139 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).

Web links

• Roland of Galloway on thepeerage.com
• ROLAND Lord of Galloway at fmg.ac
• Richard D. Oram: Roland [Lachlan], lord of Galloway (1200). 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. ^ AAM Duncan: John King of England and the kings of Scots . In: SD Church: King John: new interpretations . Boydell, Woodbridge 1999, ISBN 0-85115-947-8 , p. 247.
2. ^ Richard D. Oram: A Family Business? Colonization and Settlement in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Galloway, p. 117.
3. ^ Richard D. Oram: A Family Business? Colonization and Settlement in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Galloway , p. 128.
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. 234.
5. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Scotland and Its Neighbors in the Middle Ages . Hambledon, London 1992, ISBN 1-85285-052-3 , p. 75.
6. ^ 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. 183.
7. ^ 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. 233.
8. ^ ^{A b} 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. 184.
9. ^ 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. 194.
10. ^ 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. 203.
11. ↑ Geoffrey Stell: Medieval Buildings and Secular Lordship. In: Richard Oram, Geoffrey Stell (Ed.): Galloway. Land and Lordship. The Scottish Society for Northern Studies, Edinburgh 1991, ISBN 0-9505994-6-8 , p. 153.
12. ^ 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.