Margery Byset (Bisset, Bissett; also Marjery, Margaret, Marie) was an Irish noblewoman belonging to the Bissett family whose marriage to John Mór Tanister MacDonnell in 1399 laid the basis for the
Clan Donald
Clan Donald, also known as Clan MacDonald ( gd, Clann Dòmhnaill; Mac Dòmhnaill ), is a Highland Scottish clan and one of the largest Scottish clans. The Lord Lyon King of Arms, the Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry i ...
Clan MacDonald of Dunnyveg
Clan MacDonald of Dunnyveg, also known as Clan Donald South, ''Clan Iain Mor, Clan MacDonald of Islay and Kintyre, MacDonalds of the Glens (Antrim)'' and sometimes referred to as ''MacDonnells'', is a Scottish clan and a branch of Clan Donald. T ...
.
Parentage
Margery appears to have been the daughter of the
Mac Eoin Bissett
The history of the Bissett family in Ireland can be studied independently from that of the originally identical family in Scotland, because of their unique experience following their arrival in Ulster in the early or mid-13th century. Here, wh ...
, Lord of the Glens, and Sabia O'Neill (died 1387), a princess of the
O'Neill dynasty
The O'Neill dynasty (Irish: ''Ó Néill'') are a lineage of Irish Gaelic origin, that held prominent positions and titles in Ireland and elsewhere. As kings of Cenél nEógain, they were historically the most prominent family of the Northern ...
. This is all that is relatively certain, however, because no medieval Bissett pedigree has survived, the family falling from power in the Glens of Antrim in or not long after 1522, following the
Battle of Knockavoe
The Battle of Knockavoe (''Cnoc-Buidhbh'') was fought in 1522 between the O'Donnells, led by Hugh Dubh O'Donnell and Manus O'Donnell, both sons of Sir Hugh Dubh O'Donnell, against the O'Neills, in which the O'Neills and their supporters were sur ...
, and not being recorded by
Duald Mac Firbis
Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh (), also known as Dubhaltach Óg mac Giolla Íosa Mór mac Dubhaltach Mór Mac Fhirbhisigh, Duald Mac Firbis, Dudly Ferbisie, and Dualdus Firbissius (fl. 1643 – January 1671) was an Irish scribe, translator, historia ...
in the mid-17th century except in reference to their maternal kin the MacDonnells, who replaced them. Mac Firbis uniquely describes the Bissetts as being of
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
origin, first arriving in England with
William the Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
. As far as Margery's likely mother Sabia it is possible she was one of the four daughters of Aodh Reamhar Ó Néill,
King of Ulster
The King of Ulster (Old Irish: ''Rí Ulad'', Modern Irish: ''Rí Uladh'') also known as the King of Ulaid and King of the Ulaid, was any of the kings of the Irish provincial over-kingdom of Ulaid. The title rí in Chóicid, which means "king of ...
, whose names were unknown to the 19th century genealogist
John O'Hart
John O'Hart (1824–1902) was an Irish genealogist. He was born in Crossmolina, County Mayo, Ireland. A committed Roman Catholic and Irish nationalist, O'Hart had originally planned to become a priest but instead spent two years as a poli ...
, the O'Neill pedigrees themselves being imperfectly preserved.
Life
Possibly some time before, or around the time of her marriage to John Mór Tanister, Margery met
Richard II of England
Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father die ...
when he was in Ireland, either during his 1394–1395 campaign to receive the submission of a number of the Irish princes, or later in 1399, the year in which he was deposed. She was "no doubt presented to him, as the daughter of a great northern lord", and retained a memory of his face. After she had come to reside with John in the Isles, the contemporary Scottish poet
Andrew of Wyntoun
Andrew Wyntoun, known as Andrew of Wyntoun (), was a Scottish poet, a canon and prior of Loch Leven on St Serf's Inch and, later, a canon of St. Andrews.
Andrew Wyntoun is most famous for his completion of an eight-syllabled metre entitled, '' ...
tells of her recognition of a man whom she believed to be the deposed king travelling ressedas a poor man.Hill, p. 25 Although Richard is widely believed to have starved to death in captivity in
Pontefract Castle
Pontefract (or Pomfret) Castle is a castle ruin in the town of Pontefract, in West Yorkshire, England. King Richard II is thought to have died there. It was the site of a series of famous sieges during the 17th-century English Civil War. ...
in early 1400, Margery vouched for the man, whomever he may have been, and the Scots believed her. He was naturally dismissed as an impostor by Henry IV, but had a kind of career as an anti-Lancastrian figurehead anyway and died in 1419.
Issue
*
Donald Balloch MacDonald
Donald Balloch MacDonald (Scottish Gaelic: ''Dòmhnall Ballach Mac Dhòmhnaill'') Scottish-Gaelic lord, died about 1476.
Biography
MacDonald was a son of John Mór Tanister and Margery Byset, daughter of MacEoin Bisset, Lord of The Glens. He w ...
Leabhar na nGenealach
''Leabhar na nGenealach'' ("Book of Genealogies") is a massive genealogical collection written mainly in the years 1649 to 1650, at the college-house of St. Nicholas' Collegiate Church, Galway, by Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh. He continued to add m ...
''. Ireland. 1650.
* Nicholls, K. W., "Anglo-French Ireland and after", in ''
Peritia
''Peritia'' is an annual peer-reviewed academic journal covering Celtic and Insular medieval studies in the context of the European Middle Ages and European medieval studies in general. It is published by the Medieval Academy of Ireland.
History ...
Royal Irish Academy
The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ga, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned socie ...
Margery
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Margery is a heavily buffered, lightly populated hamlet in the Reigate and Banstead district, in the English county of Surrey. It sits on the North Downs, is bordered by the London Orbital Motorway, at a lower altitude, and its predom ...