Maol Íosa II, Earl of Strathearn
Maol Íosa II of Strathearn (Máel Ísu or Malise II of Strathearn) who ruled Strathearn 1245–1271, is the fifth known Mormaer of Strathearn, but of course this is simply a source problem and in no way means that he actually was the fifth.
Maol Íosa II, was the first known son of Mormaer Robert. He has been noted as the first Mormaer to encourage the movement of French and English settlers into his Mormaerdom, or at least to allow an influx of French-speaking warriors into his entourage (Neville, 2005, pp. 23–4). We might regard it as part of the same phenomenon that following the reign of Maol Íosa II, the Mormaers of Strathearn thereafter remained pivotal and dynamic figures in the larger world of northern British politics, never again confining themselves purely within their mormaerdom.
Maol Íosa was an intelligent figure who managed to retain the favor of both the Scottish and English kings, and steer a middle line between the Comyn-Durward rivalry that dominated Scottish court politics in the middle of the 13th century
Marriages and progeny
Earl Malise (or Maol Íosa) evidently married four times:
- Firstly, before 1245, to Marjorie de Muschamp, daughter and coheir of her father Sir Robert de Muschamp of Wooler, Northumberland by his wife Isabel.[1] They had two daughters:
- Muriel, born before 1245, wife of William or Uilleam, Earl of Mar
- Mary, born before 1249, wife of Sir Nicholas de Graham of Dalkeith, Midlothian[2]
- Secondly, before December 1257, Maud or Matilda, daughter of Gilbert, Earl of Orkney by whom he had two known sons and one daughter:
- Maol Íosa
- Robert
- Cecilia
- Thirdly it appears he married another wife, allegedly named Emma, by whom there was evidently no issue
- Fourthly he married, in or after 1265, Mary of Argyll, also called Máire ingen Eógain, widow of Magnus Olafsson, king of Man. She survived Earl Malise and married lastly, in or after 1271, Sir Hugh de Abernethy, by whom she was the mother of Alexander de Abernethy[3]
Maol Íosa II died in 1271, and was succeeded by his son, Maol Íosa III
References
- ↑ The Scots Peerage, Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, ed. James Balfour Paul, Vol VIII (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1911), pp. 245-7
- ↑ The Scots Peerage, Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, ed. James Balfour Paul, Vol VIII (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1911), pp. 245-7
- ↑ The Scots Peerage, Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, ed. James Balfour Paul, Vol VIII (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1911), pp. 245-7
Bibliography
- Neville, Cynthia J., Native Lordship in Medieval Scotland: The Earldoms of Strathearn and Lennox, c. 1140-1365, (Portland & Dublin, 2005)
| Preceded by Robert |
Mormaer of Strathearn 1245–1271 |
Succeeded by Maol Íosa III |
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