Crínán of Dunkeld

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Crínán of Dunkeld
Abbot of Dunkeld
Died1045
SpouseBethóc
IssueDuncan I of Scotland
Daughter
Meldred
HouseHouse of Dunkeld

Crínán of Dunkeld, also called Crinan the Thane (c. 975-1045), was the hereditary

Mormaer of Atholl. Crínán was progenitor of the House of Dunkeld, the dynasty which would rule the Kingdom of Scotland
until the later 13th century. He was the son-in-law of one king, and the father of another.

Family

In the year 1000, Crínán was married to

Uhtred the Bold and granddaughter of King Æthelred the Unready, and was father of Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria and ancestor of the Earls of Home and the Earls of Dunbar.[2]

Crínán may have spent some time in exile in England under the patronage of Æthelred and/or Cnut before becoming abbot of Dunkeld. Neil McGuigan suggests that he may be the moneyer named Crínán who appears on some of the coinage during Cnut's reign, between 1017 and 1023. It may have been during this period that the marriage of Maldred and Ealdgyth was arranged.[4]

In 1045, Crínán of Dunkeld rose in rebellion against Macbeth in support of his 14-year-old grandson, Malcolm III's claim to the throne.[5] Malcolm was the elder son of Crínán's son, the late King Duncan, who predeceased his father. However, Crínán, by then an elderly man, was killed in a battle at Dunkeld, as was his son Maldred of Allerdale.[2][6]

Abbot of Dunkeld

The

Cenél nEógain descent for the House of Dunkeld.[9]

While the title of Hereditary Abbot (coarb in Gaelic) was a

feudal
position that was often exercised in name only, Crinán does seem to have acted as Abbot in charge of the monastery in his time. He was thus a man of high position in both clerical and secular society.

The magnificent semi-ruined Dunkeld Cathedral, built in stages between 1260 and 1501, stands today on the grounds once occupied by the monastery. The Cathedral contains the only surviving remains of the previous monastic society: a course of red stone visible in the east choir wall that may have been re-used from an earlier building, and two stone ninth – or tenth-century cross-slabs in the Cathedral Museum.

Walter Bower and John of Fordun do not identify Crínán as abbot of Dunkeld but accord him the offices of abbot of Dull and seneschal of the Isles.[10][11]

References

  1. ^ MacPherson, Aeneas (July 1902). The Loyall Dissuasive. Edinburgh. p. 41:lxxxv. Retrieved 7 April 2020.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ a b c Paul, James Balfour (1906). The Scots Peerage (PDF). Vol. 3. Edinburgh. pp. 239–245.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ISBN 9780851156156
    .
  4. ISBN 9781910900192
  5. ^ Knox, James. The topography of the basin of the Tay, Andrew Shorteed, Edinburgh, 1831
  6. ^ The Annals of Tigermach p. 385
  7. ISBN 9780748612338
    .
  8. ^ Sir Iain Moncreiffe of that Ilk, The Highland Clans. Part II. 1982. p. 236
  9. ISBN 9781527510890
    .
  10. ^ Bower, Walter, Scotichronicon vol. IV, pp. 400 & 401
  11. ^ Fordun, John of, Chronica Gentis Scotorum I, p. 181

External Source

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crínán_of_Dunkeld&oldid=1176388206"