Alan, Earl of Menteith (d. c. 1310) was a Scottish nobleman.

Life

Menteith was the son of

Alexander, Earl of Menteith Alexander of Menteith (d. bef. 1306), a Scottish nobleman and member of the Stewart family, he was the Earl of Menteith. Life Alexander was the eldest son and heir of Walter Bailloch Stewart and Mary I, Countess of Menteith and was the Mormaer or ...

, and is first on record as a hostage in England, to ensure the good behaviour of his father in 1296. He and his brother Peter Menteith accompanied the English King as esquires on his expedition to Flanders in 1297. He supported King

Robert the Bruce Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (Scottish Gaelic: ''Raibeart an Bruis''), was King of Scots from 1306 to his death in 1329. One of the most renowned warriors of his generation, Robert eventual ...

in his initial attempt to seize power following the deposition of

John Balliol John Balliol ( – late 1314), known derisively as ''Toom Tabard'' (meaning "empty coat" – coat of arms), was King of Scots from 1292 to 1296. Little is known of his early life. After the death of Margaret, Maid of Norway, Scotland entered an ...

. Menteith was declared forfeit by

Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vas ...

, and his lands and title given to

John Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings John Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings (6 May 1262 – 28 February 1313), feudal Lord of Abergavenny, was an English peer and soldier. He was one of the Competitors for the Crown of Scotland in 1290/92 in the Great Cause and signed and sealed the ...

. He was captured at the Battle of Methven, and given to Hastings' disposal. Menteith was committed to

Abergavenny Castle Abergavenny Castle ( cy, Castell y Fenni) is a ruined castle in the market town of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales, established by the Norman lord Hamelin de Balun . It was the site of a massacre of Welsh noblemen in 1175, and was attacked ...

; he died a prisoner before 13 March 1308/09, when John de Hastings had licence "to demise to Margery, late the wife of Alan, earl of Menteth, for her life, the manor of Wotton..." Menteith was succeeded in his Earldom by his son

Alan II, Earl of Menteith Alan II, Earl of Menteith (d. after 23 Aug 1315) was a Scottish Nobleman. Life Menteith was the son of Alan, Earl of Menteith, and is first noted in an order dated at Carlisle in 1307 to provide foodstuffs ' to the two sons of the Earl of Menteit ...

, who was then a minor.

Marriage and issue

Alan, Earl of Menteith married Marjory or Margery, who has been shown to have been a daughter of Colbán, Earl of Fife by his wife Anne Durward. They had two sons, one of whom, Alan, succeeded his father as Earl when a minor. Prof. Barrow has shown that Duncan, Earl of Fife entailed the Earldom of Fife on his cousin Alan, son of Earl Alan of Menteith with the approval of King Robert I on 23 August 1315 (Barrow, Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland, p. 391). Andrew B. W. MacEwen was the first to note that the younger Alan was the father of Mary, Countess of Menteith. Cf. J. Ravilious, The Earls of Menteith: Murdoch, Earl of Menteith and the Ferrers family of Groby, The Scottish Genealogist (March 2013), Vol. LX, No. 1, pp. 12–25

Notes

References

Balfour Paul, Sir James ''Scots Peerage'' IX vols. Edinburgh 1904.

External links

history
of Menteith family Scottish soldiers People of the Wars of Scottish Independence Mormaers of Menteith 14th-century Scottish earls {{Scotland-earl-stub