The Mormaer or Mormaerdom of Mearns is the most obscure
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
Scottish
mormaer
In early medieval Scotland, a mormaer was the Gaelic name for a regional or provincial ruler, theoretically second only to the King of Scots, and the senior of a ''Toísech'' (chieftain). Mormaers were equivalent to English earls or Continental c ...
dom. It is known only from one source, a source relating that
Máel Petair, ''Mormaer of
Mearns'', killed
Donnchad II. There is good reason to believe that this is not some mistake, and that Mearns was once a Mormaerdom. The early thirteenth century source, known to historians a
de Situ Albanie, adds believability to this because it lists Mearns in a list of 13 Scottish regions which in 6½ pairs each formed one of the seven ancient Kingdoms of the
Picts
The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ea ...
. Only two of the eleven other regions are not attested in sources as Mormaerdoms, those ones being
Fothriff
Fothriff or Fothrif was a province of Scotland in the Middle Ages. It is often paired with Fife, not only in ''De Situ Albanie'', but also in early charters.
The exact extent of early Fothriff is unclear, but in around 1300 the Deanery of Fothri ...
and
Gowrie. It is probable that by the time Mormaers begin to be consistently attested, i.e. roughly between 1150 and 1250, Mearns was absorbed by the crown and not regranted.
Confusingly, ''Mormaer'' means ''Great Steward''; ''Maerns'' means merely ''Stewardry'', and would be expected to be ''Mormaerns'' if there was a Mormaerdom.
Bibliography
* Anderson, Alan Orr, ''Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500-1286'', 2 Vols, (Edinburgh, 1922), Vol. I, pp. 89–91
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mormaer Of Mearns
Kincardine and Mearns
Mormaers