Máel Coluim, Earl of Atholl

Mormaer of Atholl

Máel Coluim of Atholl was Mormaer of Atholl between 1153/9 and the 1190s.^[1]

The Chronicle of Holyrood tells us that in 1186 Máel Coluim had an outlaw called Adam mac Domnaill killed at the altar of a church in Coupar, and burned 58 of his associates inside the church.^[2] It is possible that this was a son of Domnall mac Uilleim, who claimed the Scottish throne and was revolting against King William I.^[3]

Máel Coluim is known to have granted the church of Moulin to the Benedictine monks of Dunfermline Abbey.^[4]

He was married twice. After his first marriage, he married Hextilda, the daughter of Uhtred of Tynedale, an Anglo-Saxon baron. He named his son and successor Henry, perhaps in honour of King Henry II of England.^[5] However, Hextilda had been married to Richard Comyn who was still alive well after Henry was born—so it is unlikely she was his mother.

References

^ MacDonald, Outlaws, p. 77, n. 75.
^ Anderson, Early Sources, p. 311.
^ MacDonald, Outlaws, p. 39.
^ Anderson, Early Sources, p. 509, n.2.
^ Anderson, Early Sources, p. 182, n.5.

Bibliography

Anderson, Alan Orr, Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500-1286, 2 Vols (Edinburgh, 1922)
McDonald, R. Andrew, Outlaws of Medieval Scotland: Challenges to the Canmore Kings, 1058-1266 (East Linton, 2003)

Preceded by

Matad

Mormaer of Atholl
1153/9-1190s

Succeeded by

Henry

Mormaers or Earls of Atholl

[Known] 10th-century mormaers