Fothad II was the

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of St Andrews (1059–1093) for most of the reign of King Máel Coluim III mac Donnchada (reigned 1058–1093). Alternative spellings include ''Fodhoch'', ''Fothach'' and ''Foderoch'', and ''Fothawch'' (by

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, ...

). A "Modach filius Malmykel" is mentioned in a grant, dated 1093, as the bishop of S. Andrews. As this bishop is certainly Fothad II, his father was a man named Máel Míchéil. According to

, Fothad performed the marriage ceremony between King Máel Coluim and the woman who would be his second wife,

Margaret Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...

. An early 12th-century cleric of

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

claimed that Fothad, on the instructions of Queen Margaret, had submitted to the

Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers the ...

, although modern historians are usually inclined to doubt this. He was influential enough for his death in 1093 to be noticed by the ''

Annals of Ulster The ''Annals of Ulster'' () are annals of History of Ireland, medieval Ireland. The entries span the years from 431 AD to 1540 AD. The entries up to 1489 AD were compiled in the late 15th century by the scribe Ruaidhrí Ó Luin� ...

'', which calls him "Fothud ardepscop Alban" (i.e. "Fothad, High Bishop rchbishop?of Scotland"). His immediate successor, according to the bishop list of

Walter Bower Walter Bower (or Bowmaker; 24 December 1449) was a Scottish canon regular and abbot of Inchcolm Abbey in the Firth of Forth, who is noted as a chronicler of his era. He was born about 1385 at Haddington, East Lothian, in the Kingdom of Scotl ...

, was Giric;MacQueen ''et al.'', ''op. cit.'', p. 345. but the next consecrated bishop we know about from other sources is Turgot. The obvious question is, did the bishopric really lie vacant for a decade and a half, did Bower or his source invent Giric, or did Giric actually succeed? The former options hardly seem probable in the context.

Notes

References

Anderson, Alan Orr Alan Orr Anderson (1879–1958) was a Scottish historian and compiler. The son of Rev. John Anderson and Ann Masson, he was born in 1879. He was educated at Royal High School, Edinburgh, and the University of Edinburgh. In 1908, after fiv ...

, ''Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500-1286'', 2 Vols, (Edinburgh, 1922) *Anderson, Alan Orr, ''Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers: AD 500-1286'', (London, 1908), republished, Marjorie Anderson (ed.) (Stamford, 1991) * Anderson, Marjorie Ogilvie, "St. Andrews before Alexander I", in G.W.S. Barrow (ed.), ''The Scottish Tradition'', (Edinburgh, 1994), pp. 1–13 * 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., "The Clergy of St. Andrews", in ''The Kingdom of the Scots'', 2nd Ed., (Edinburgh, 2003), pp. 187–202 * Lawrie, Sir Archibald, ''Early Scottish Charters Prior to A.D. 1153'', (Glasgow, 1905) *MacQueen, John, MacQueen, Winifred & Watt, D.E.R. (eds.), ''Scottichronicon by Walter Bower in Latin and English'', Vol. 3, (Aberdeen, 1995)

External links

Annals of Ulster s.a. 1093

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fothad 02 of Cennrigmonaid 11th-century births 1093 deaths Bishops of St Andrews Medieval Gaels from Scotland 11th-century Scottish Roman Catholic bishops