William III, 5th Earl of Ross

Uilleam III, Earl of Ross From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uilleam_III,_Earl_of_Ross

Uilleam (or William) III of Ross was the fourth successor of Ferchar mac in tSagairt, as Mormaer of Ross (1333/6-1370).

Uilleam came into his inheritance at a torrid time, his father Aodh dying at the Battle of Halidon Hill. Uilleam temporarily lost many of his lands. However, he returned from Norway in 1336 and regained them. Uilleam cultivated the friendship of the Stewarts, and was rewarded by being appointed Justiciar of Scotia. Uilleam's reign was marked by continued strife with his nominal vassal, Ranald MacRuadridh (Lord of Skye). In 1348, Uilleam killed Ranald with eight of his men at the nunnery of Elcho.

Uilleam married Màiri, the daughter of Aonghas Óg MacDomhnaill. They had an heir, Uilleam, but he died in 1357. Uilleam's lands were forfeited by King David II in 1370. Uilleam died in 1372, and the Mormaerdom was given to his daughter Euphemia with her husband Sir Walter Leslie, thus ending the dynasty started a century and a half before by the great Ferchar. The dominions eventually passed to the MacDonald Lords of the Isles.

Bibliography

Roberts, John L., Lost Kingdoms: Celtic Scotland in the Middle Ages, (Edinburgh, 1997)

External links

Genealogy Page Great Clan Ross (N/B Unfortunately, much info depends on this unreliable site) Preceded by Aodh Mormaer of Ross 1333/6-1370/2 Succeeded by Euphemia m. Walter Leslie

http://www.venitap.com/Genealogy/WebCards/ps33/ps33_459.htm

NameEarl William de ROSS 5th Of Ross, Lord of Skye , M Birth Dateabt 1309 Birth PlaceDelny, Ross-Shire, Scotland Death Date9 Feb 1372 Death PlaceDelny, Ross-Shire, Scotland FatherEarl Hugh ROSS 4th Of Ross , M (~1286-1333) MotherLady Matilda / Maud de BRUCE Of Annandale , F (~1287->1323) Spouses 1Lady Mary MACDONALD Of The Isles , F Birth Dateabt 1325 Birth PlaceIsle Of Islay, Scotland FatherLord Angus Og MACDONALD 6th Of The Isles , M (~1275-1330) MotherLady Agnes O’CATHAN Of Ulster , F (~1280-) Marr Date25 May 1342 Marr MemoPapal dispensation ChildrenJoanna , F (~1342-<1400)

William , M (~1343-~1357)

Euphemia , F (~1345-1395) Notes for Earl William de ROSS 5th Of Ross, Lord of Skye He [Hugh] married, first, in 1308, Lady Maud Bruce, sister of the King.

By her he had issue:

1. William. 2. John, son of late Hugh, Earl of Ross; died 27 May 1364. 3. Marjory, married, as his second wife, before 1334, to Malise, Earl of Strathear, Caithness, and Orkney.

Source: THE SCOTS PEERAGE, ed. by Sir James Balfour Paul, Vol VII, Edinburgh, 1906, p. 235-7.
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V. William, fifth Earl of Ross, Lord of Skye, Justiciar of Scotland of Scotland north of the Forth, called in a charter of 1374 ‘frater regis,’ was in Norway in 1333 when his father died, and did not take possession of his earldom until 1336.

In 1339 he joined the Steward of Scotland at the siege of Perth. By the artifice of a mine, he diverted the water from the fosse, and preparations were immediately made for storming the town, when the English governor capitulated, 17 August 1339.

William, Earl of Ross, son and heir of the deceased Hugh, Earl of Ross, granted a charter to Reginald, son of Roderick de Insulis, of ten davachs of land in Kennetale (Kintail), in North Argyll, dated 4 july 1342. It was the same Reginald or Ronald MacRuari whom the Earl murdered in the monastery of Elcho in 1346, when King David assembled an army at Perth to invade England. The murderer then withdrew with his men to the mountains.

The Earl also granted certain lands of Culclochy to the chapel of St. Mary at Inverness. In 1348 the Earl of Ross was accused of having interfered with the collection of the issues of Court. Ten years after, in 1358, we find him denying this accusation; and in the same year he failed to give give suit for Forgandenny; in 1359 Inverlounan with in his hands.

King David was liberated in 1357; on the 8 May 1357 it was agreed at London that the Earl of Ross and two others should come to England and remain there in ‘afforcement’ of the hostages for the King’s ransom. On September 26, 1357 letters-patent were issued, sealed by him, and eleven others, appointing for themselves and the other magnates, and the community of Scotland, Plenipotentiaries to treat with the English for the ransom of King David. He received a safe-conduct to come to England 6 June 1358.

William, Earl of Ross, Lord of Skye, granted a charter of the lands of Gerloch, in Argyll, to Paul Mactire, dated at Delgheni 5 April 1366, witnessed by Hugh de Ross, his brother. The Earl resigned to King David II all right and claim he had to the forest of Plater, in the lands of Fathynevent, with the advocation of the church of the same; but that resignation not having been made with his will, he had a charter to that effect from the King 6 May 1369.

In 1366 the northern lords threw off their allegiance, and refused to contribute their rate towards the payment of the King’s ransom and others burdens. Among the principal leaders were the Earl of Ross and Hugh his brother. The Earl remained absent from the Parliaments of 1366 and 1367, but in 1368 he was obliged to find security to keep the peace, and engaged within his territories to administer justice and to assist officers in collecting taxes.

In 1350, with the approval of his sister, Marjory, Countess of Caithness and Orkney, and on condition of obtaining the King’s consent, he appointed his brother Hugh his heir. On the death of his uncle, Sir John le Ross, he inherited half of the lands of the earldom of Buchan.

King David favoured the marriage of the Earl’s daughter, Euphemia, with Sir Walter de Lesley, without her father’s sanction, and in 1370, probably remembering the Earl’s conduct at Elcho, compelled him to resign all his possessions for re-infeftment. Therefore, a new charter was, on 23 October 1370, granted of the earldom of Ross and lordship of Skye, and of all his landa except those which belonged to the earldom of Buchan, to be held first to the Earl and to the heirs-male of his body; whom failing, to Sir Walter de Lesley, Euphemia his spouse, and their heirs; whom failing to his youngest daughter, Joanna or Janet, and her heirs.

After his brother, Hugh’s death, he addressed a Querimonia, dated 24 june 1371, to Robert II, in which he styles himself ‘humilis nepos,’ complaining of the way in which all his possessions, and also those of his brother, Hugh, lying within Buchan, had been taken from him by force and fraud and given by the late King to Sir Walter de Lesley. This complaint met with no result, and a few months later

he died at Delny 9 February 1371-72. [Delny is a small hamlet in the parish of Kilmuir-Easter in Ross-shire, Scotland. It was once the seat of the Earl of Ross.]

William, fifth Earl of Ross, married (in terms of a Papal dispensation dated 25 May 1342) Mary, daughter of Angus Og, Lord of the Isles.

He had issue:

1. William, proposed in 1354 as one of the hostage for payment of the King’s ransom, but in August 1357 he was too ill to travel, and must have died before the end of the year. 2. Euphemia, who became Countess of Ross. 3. Joanna or Janet, married, in 1375, to Sir Alexander Fraser of Cowie, ancestor of Lord Salton, and died ante 1400.

Source: THE SCOTS PEERAGE, ed. by Sir James Balfour Paul, Vol VII, Edinburgh, 1906, p. 237-9.
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In 1370 he [William] resigned some of his lands and titles to the king, and in Parliament got a new grant of them, giving succession after him to his daughter Euphemia and her husband, Sir Walter Leslie, and the longest liver of them, and their heirs. From this arrangement were excluded his lands in the shires of Aberdeen, Dumfries, and Wigtown, which had come into his family through Margaret Comyn and might have had a different succession by Sir John Ross’s settlement. The King, apparently without the consent of the earl, bestowed on Euphemia and her husband so much of these lands as lay in Buchan, viz., the barony of Kingedward.

He died in 1372, leaving two daughters, Euphemia and Janet.

Before 1367 Euphemia had been married to sir Walter Leslie of Leslie, Aberdeenshire, of the family of Rothes. He died at Perth 27 February 1381-82, and before 22 July following his widow had been constrained to marry Sir Alexander Stewart, fourth son of Robert II, popularly styled the ‘Wolf of Badenoch.’ This marriage gave him a legal right to the revenue of the earldom Ross, which the King had already given to him during Sir Walter Leslie’s life.

The Countess was alive in 1389; but she is not again mentioned.

By her first husband she had a son and a daughter,

but she had no children by her second husband.

Her sister Janet was married before 1375 to Sir Alexander Fraser of Cowie, who received Philorth and other lands in recompence and satisfaction of Janet’s share in the earldom or territory of Ross.

Source: THE SCOTS PEERAGE, ed. by Sir James Balfour Paul, Vol II, Edinburgh, 1906, p. 260-61.
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William of Ross, 5th Earl of Ross, Lord of Skye, Justiciar of Scotland north of the Forth ... married by dispensation dated 25 May 1342 Mary of the Isles, daughter of Angus Og, Lord of the Isles, by Agnes O’Cathan (afterwards wife of Henry O’Neill, King of Cenel Eoghain).

They had one son,

William and two daughters, Euphame and Joan (or Janet) (wife of Alexander Fraser, Knt.).

Source: MAGNA CARTA ANCESTRY, by Douglas Richardson, © 2011, Douglas Richardson.
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WILLIAM de Ross (-Delny 9 Feb 1372). John of Fordun’s Scotichronicon (Continuator) names "Willelmum comitem" as son of "Robertum comitem de Carric…alia filia" and her husband "Hugoni comiti de Ross". He was in Norway when his father died, and was made Earl of Ross 17 May 1336. m (Papal dispensation 25 May 1342) MARY Macdonald, daughter of ANGUS Macdonald Lord of the Isles & his wife Agnes of Cathan.

Earl William & his wife had three children:

a) EUPHEME de Ross ([1345]-after 4 May 1394). She succeeded her father in 1372 as Ctss of Ross, suo iure. Robert II King of Scotland confirmed the confirmation made by "consanguineus noster Walterus de Lesley de Ross et...consanguinea nostra Eufamia sponsa sua", of a donation to Fraserburgh made by “Andree Mercer”, by charter dated 1382. She possessed one half of the lands of the earldom of Buchan, which she resigned before their regrant to her second husband. She separated from her second husband, alleging that she lived in fear of her life.

m firstly (before 13 Sep 1365) WALTER Leslie, son of ANDREW Leslie of Leslie & his wife --- (-Perth 27 Feb 1382). m secondly ([24 Jul 1382], separated, divorced 1392) ALEXANDER Stewart "the Wolf" of Badenoch, son of ROBERT II King of Scotland & his first wife Elizabeth Mure (1342-[1405/06], bur Dunkeld). Earl of Ross, de iure uxoris. He was recognised 25 Jul 1382 as Earl of Buchan.

b) JANET de Ross (-before 1400). m as his first wife, ALEXANDER Fraser, son of ---.

c) WILLIAM de Ross (after 1350-after 1357).

Source: Scotland, Earls Created 1162-1398 - http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/SCOTTISH%20NOBILITY%20LATER.htm
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Notes for Mary (Spouse 1) Angus married Agnes, daughter of Guy O’Cathan of Ulster, with a tocher of 140 men out of every surname in O’Cathan’s territory.

By her he had:

1. John, his successor.

2. Mary, married to William, Earl of Ross.

3. Finvola or Fingola, married to John Stewart; a dispensation being issued in their favour on 14 January 1342-43, as they were related in the fourth degree both of Kindred and affinity.

He had another son, known as John Fraoch, progenitor of the Macdonalds of Glencoe, who is alleged by the seanachies to have been illegitimate. The mother of John was a daughter of Dougall MacHenry, a leading man in Glencoe. …

Source: THE SCOTS PEERAGE, ed. by Sir James Balfour Paul, Vol V, Edinburgh, 1906, pp. 36-37.
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William, fifth Earl of Ross, married (in terms of a Papal dispensation dated 25 May 1342) Mary, daughter of Angus Og, Lord of the Isles.

He had issue:

1. William, proposed in 1354 as one of the hostage for payment of the King’s ransom, but in August 1357 he was too ill to travel, and must have died before the end of the year. 2. Euphemia, who became Countess of Ross. 3. Joanna or Janet, married, in 1375, to Sir Alexander Fraser of Cowie, ancestor of Lord Salton, and died ante 1400.

Source: THE SCOTS PEERAGE, ed. by Sir James Balfour Paul, Vol VII, Edinburgh, 1906, p. 237-9.
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William of Ross, 5th Earl of Ross, Lord of Skye, Justiciar of Scotland north of the Forth ... married by dispensation dated 25 May 1342 Mary of the Isles, daughter of Angus Og, Lord of the Isles, by Agnes O’Cathan (afterwards wife of Henry O’Neill, King of Cenel Eoghain).

They had one son,

William and two daughters, Euphame and Joan (or Janet) (wife of Alexander Fraser, Knt.).

Source: MAGNA CARTA ANCESTRY, by Douglas Richardson, © 2011, Douglas Richardson.

http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/SCOTTISH%20NOBILITY%20LATER.htm#_To...

  WILLIAM de Ross (-Delny 9 Feb 1372).  John of Fordun’s Scotichronicon (Continuator) names "Willelmum comitem" as son of "Robertum comitem de Carric…alia filia" and her husband "Hugoni comiti de Ross"[36].  He was in Norway when his father died, and was made Earl of Ross 17 May 1336.  m (Papal dispensation 25 May 1342) MARY Macdonald, daughter of ANGUS Macdonald Lord of the Isles & his wife Agnes of Cathan.  Earl William & his wife had three children:

a) EUPHEME de Ross ([1345]-after 4 May 1394). She succeeded her father in 1372 as Ctss of Ross, suo iure. Robert II King of Scotland confirmed the confirmation made by "consanguineus noster Walterus de Lesley de Ross et...consanguinea nostra Eufamia sponsa sua", of a donation to Fraserburgh made by “Andree Mercer”, by charter dated 1382[37]. She possessed one half of the lands of the earldom of Buchan, which she resigned before their regrant to her second husband[38]. She separated from her second husband, alleging that she lived in fear of her life[39]. m firstly (before 13 Sep 1365) WALTER Leslie, son of ANDREW Leslie of Leslie & his wife --- (-Perth 27 Feb 1382). m secondly ([24 Jul 1382], separated, divorced 1392) ALEXANDER Stewart "the Wolf" of Badenoch, son of ROBERT II King of Scotland & his first wife Elizabeth Mure (1342-[1405/06], bur Dunkeld). Earl of Ross, de iure uxoris. He was recognised 25 Jul 1382 as Earl of Buchan.

b) JANET de Ross (-before 1400). [40]m as his first wife, ALEXANDER Fraser, son of ---.

c) WILLIAM de Ross (after 1350-after 1357).

William, Fifth Earl of Ross, "grandfather" of the Cairneys

The Earl of Ross referred to as ancestor of the Cairneys was the last medieval Earl of Ross of the line of the O'Bjolans. His father had married Lady Maud Bruce, sister of King Robert I of Scotland, famous to history as Robert the Bruce, and also brother of Edward Bruce, King of Ireland. This William, fifth Earl of Ross, himself had Royal pretensions that got him into a lot of trouble, and he had little reason to rejoice in the rash acts of his life! He would rue the day he thought himself the equal of the younger Bruce. Or perhaps he thought it better to be ruled by Edward of England, at a great distance, or, in other words, to rule in his own right. Certainly if the Bruce line failed, Ross would not bemoan it: It would have put William in an enviable position with respect to the throne itself. His mother's brother was (briefly) king of Ireland, he had relatives under the Norwegians, who lately and still owned much of the north and west of Scotland, and he felt in his own right not subservient to even the Stewart of Scotland, being himself of the same blood royal and also feeling the ancient rank of the Earldom of Ross. And there was constant independent contact with Edward of England, and with the Pope. Did he want to be ruler of the Hebrides and King of Ross, like his own ninth-century Norwegian ancestor, Helgi Bjolan and Helgi's nephew, Thorstein the Red of the Sagas? William did marry a daughter of Angus Og, Lord of the Isles, and he was Lord of Skye in his own right. His pretensions in the North, whatever they were, he eventually would lament: they resulted in his Earldom being entirely taken from his family, the O'Bjolans, the main line of which soon became known by the surname of "Ross" (rather than the Gaelic MacTaggart or O'Beolan) of the great Clan Ross, Ross of Ross, now greatly reduced as Barons of Balnagown. Nevertheless, they were still very considerable, though much more "local" than the Earls had been. William, on the other hand, the last O'Beolan Earl of Ross, who as a "Royal" Ross bore the Three Lions Rampant Argent of Ross within a "Royal Tressure" (similar to the Royal Arms) on the breast of the Buchan Red Spread Eagle (Comyn heiress) had had lands literally all over Scotland: in the Isles, in Buchan (Aberdeenshire), if Fife and even in Atholl, where Sir John de Cardney, his natural son, would eventually settle, or be settled, at Cardney.

William's royal pretensions against Bruce, however, would pass on seductively with his daughter and great-granddaughter, through the loyal Leslies, who next inherited the Earldom, to the rebellious Alexander MacDonald, Lord of the Isles and Earl of Ross, and would thus lead to many a parlay and battle, including the great but inconclusive contest fought between the Norman East of the Kingdom (the Leslie's and Stewart's Ross) with their broad Scots speech and knightly encasement, and the roving Gaelic Highlanders from the North and West (MacDonald's Ross): the battle of Harlaw (1411). As a result the Earldom of Ross would finally, after the forfeiture of the MacDonalds, revert so decidedly to the Crown in 1476 that it would never be seen again: a singular situation for one of the premier and original seven earldoms of Scotland.

William, Fifth Earl of Ross, was the significant product of the marriage union of Noble Ross and Royal Bruce at a time when the succession to the Kingdom of Scotland by the descendants of Bruce, the Competitor of 1286, was still warm, the Bruce line itself failing in David II. This Ross-Royal connection, which now remains only in the name of Cairney, became a noted and powerful political cocktail between 1346, when William (in an act reminiscent of his uncle's famous murder of the Red Comyn at the high altar of Greyfriars Church in 1306) murdered Ronald MacRuari of the Isles, an important Cineal nAlbanaich kinsman of the MacDonalds, in the Monastery of Elcho prior to the Battle of Neville's Cross (where the capture of David II Bruce by the English put the King out of William's hair for the next 11 years). William was a leader of the northern lords who threw off their allegiance to King David in 1366, supported no doubt by his natural son Sir John de Ross, later of Cardney. But he did attempt reconciliation with the new King, describing himself as 'humilis nepos' in a querimonia to the recently crowned Stewart King, Robert II, in 1371, and he is described as 'frater regis' in a charter of 1374, two years after his death. But then William had always worked closely with the Stewart, and had, successfully joined his cousin the then Steward of Scotland (later Robert II) at the siege of Perth in 1339.

William was acting in self-interest, understandable when considered that the Stewart of Scotland was himself in the process of inheriting the throne of Scotland by a Bruce heiress, the Bruce male line indeed failing in David II. And in spite of being sons and grandsons of the Earl of Ross, the first Cairneys played our their private and public dramas in the Royal Stewart Household, being of no danger because of their illegitimate (natural) status in their connection to William, who had never quarreled with his Royal Stewart kinsmen. The Earldom of Ross was by this time safely (seemingly) settled on the Leslies, even closer Cairney cousins. The Cairdeneys or Cairneys were loyal supporters of the Stewarts and contributed uniquely to the strength of the early Stewarts by providing them with a "fresh batch" and new generation of illegitimate royal knights settled in Atholl and ready to defend the King, their father (Robert II) or brother (Robert III). In fact, illegitimacy was something of a Cairney career in those days, though royal and dressed up with all the ceremony (and responsibility) of knighthood and property.

3 - It is established to the satisfaction of all reasonable men that the Applecross and O'Beolan Earls of Ross were one and the same, and that they were descended from Gilleoin na h' Airde, corrupted in the Norse Sagas into "Beolan," the general designation by which they were known, until Earl William, the last of his line, died

without surviving male issue on the 9th of February, 1372, when the title devolved upon his daughter, Euphemia, Countess of Ross in her own right, whose daughter, Mary, or Margaret, by Sir Walter Leslie, carried the earldom to Donald of Harlaw, second Lord of the Isles.

WILLIAM O'BEOLAN, EARL OF ROSS AND LORD OF SKYE, banished to Norway for some serious offence, but in 1336 he is found in actual possession of the earldom. He was afterwards Justiciar of Scotland, and in a charter of 1374 he is designated "frater Regis," or the King's brother, no doubt from the fact that his sister Euphemla was the wife of Robert II. He rebuilt the Abbey of Fearn, and married his cousin

Isobel, daughter of Malise, Earl of Stratherne, Orkney, and Caithness, with issue -

1. William, who died before his father

2. Euphemia, who became Countess of Ross in her own right on the death of her father.

3. Johanna, who, in 1375, married Sir Alexander Fraser, Lord of Cowie and Durris, ancestor of the Frasers of Philorth and Pitsligo, now represented by Lord Saltoun. Johanna first carried the lands of Philorth to that family. She has a charter in 1370.

William died on the 9th of February, 1372, without surviving male issue, when he was succeeded by his eldest daughter.

[ http://www.fullbooks.com/History-Of-The-Mackenzies1.html )

http://www.clanmacfarlanegenealogy.info/genealogy/TNGWebsite/getper...

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2.[S474] Colquoun_Cunningham.ged, Jamie Vans.

3.[S110] London 1910. Alan Sutton, 1982, G E C, (London 1910. Alan Sutton, 1982).

4.[S64] Mackenzies, History of the, Alexander Mackenzie, ([ History Of The Mackenzies by Alexander Mackenzie, NEW, REVISED, AND EXTENDED EDITION pub 1894 ] http://www.fullbooks.com/History-Of-The-Mackenzies1.html), Part 1.

5.[S156] Source, The Baronage Press and Pegasus Associates Ltd.

6.[S63] Cairney History, Christopher Thomas Cairney, MA, MA, PhD, (http://www.cairneys.org/history).

7.[S6] Stirnet Genealogy, Peter Barns-Graham, Bruce02.