Colban, Earl of Fife (b. 1247–1253, d. 1270/2) was ruler of

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

in Scotland. The son of Earl Malcolm and his wife, one of the daughters of

Llywelyn the Great Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (, – 11 April 1240), also known as Llywelyn the Great (, ; ), was a medieval Welsh ruler. He succeeded his uncle, Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd, as King of Gwynedd in 1195. By a combination of war and diplomacy, he dominate ...

(probably Susanna fl. 1228), he succeeded his father while still a teenager on Malcolm's death in 1266. He had been knighted by King Alexander III in 1264. His wife's name was Anna, and she was likely one of the three daughters and coheiresses of Sir Alan Durward and wife Marjory, illegitimate daughter of

Alexander II of Scotland Alexander II ( Medieval Gaelic: '; Modern Gaelic: '; nicknamed "the Peaceful" by modern historians; 24 August 1198 – 6 July 1249) was King of Alba (Scotland) from 1214 until his death. He concluded the Treaty of York (1237) which defined t ...

. Colban and Anna had a son,

Duncan Duncan may refer to: People * Duncan (given name), various people * Duncan (surname), various people * Clan Duncan * Justice Duncan (disambiguation) Places * Duncan Creek (disambiguation) * Duncan River (disambiguation) * Duncan Lake (di ...

, who succeeded as Earl of Fife at the age of eight, and a daughter, Marjory, who married

Alan, Earl of Menteith Alan, Earl of Menteith (d. c. 1310) was a Scottish nobleman. Life Menteith was the son of Alexander, Earl of Menteith and Matilda (Maud), and is first on record as a hostage in England, to ensure the good behaviour of his father in 1296. He and h ...

.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, p. 14. For a discussion of the evidence that Anna was the daughter of Alan Durward, see Matthew H. Hammond, "Hostiarii Regis Scotie: the Durward family in the thirteenth century," in Steve Boardman and Alasdair Ross, eds., The Exercise of Power in Medieval Scotland, c. 1200-1500 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2003), p. 133 Colban died while still a young man. His date of death is disputed, and depends on what evidence one interprets. G.W.S. Barrow gives 1272, but Bannerman gives 1270.

References

Bibliography

* Grant, Rev'd Alexander, "The Ancient Earls of Fife", in Sir James Balfour Paul (ed.
''The Scots Peerage''
Volume IV, (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. 10–11 * Bannerman, John, "MacDuff of Fife," in A. Grant & K.Stringer (eds.) ''Medieval Scotland: Crown, Lordship and Community, Essays Presented to G.W.S. Barrow'', (Edinburgh, 1993), pp. 20–38 *

Barrow, G. W. S. Geoffrey Wallis Steuart Barrow (28 November 1924 – 14 December 2013) was a Scottish historian and academic. The son of Charles Embleton Barrow and Marjorie née Stuart, Geoffrey Barrow was born on 28 November 1924, at Headingley near Leeds. ...

, ''The Kingdom of the Scots: Government, Church and Society from the Eleventh to the Fourteenth Century'', (Edinburgh, 2003) * Ravilious, J., "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. * Hammond, Matthew, "Hostiarii Regis Scotie: the Durward family in the thirteenth century," in Steve Boardman and Alasdair Ross, eds., ''The Exercise of Power in Medieval Scotland, c. 1200-1500'' (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2003), pp. 118–138 1270s deaths Colban Year of birth unknown Mormaers of Fife 13th-century mormaers Year of birth uncertain {{Scotland-bio-stub