Thomas of Galloway

Thomas of Galloway, known in

Alan, being the elder son, became ruler of Galloway after Lochlann's death, and Thomas had to work with his brother and build a career elsewhere.[2] The Gall-Gaidhil (modern Scottish Gaelic: Gall-Ghàidheil; Gallwedienses in Latin) were a Gaelic-speaking people in what is now south-western Scotland who gave their name to Galloway (Gall-Ghàidheillaib, "land of the Gall-Ghàidheil"), and were regarded neither as "Scottish" nor as "Irish" before the 13th century.^[3]

James Balfour Paul, early 20th-century historian of the nobility of Scotland, remarked that Thomas's activities are very poorly documented in the Scottish records compared with those elsewhere.^[4] Thomas first appears in English records early 1205, receiving gifts from John, King of England, perhaps as a reward for supplying John Galwegian galleys.^[5] Thomas assisted the English king in his Poitou campaign of 1205, and had perhaps been brought into John's service for this purpose.^[6]

Thomas temporarily acquired various estates and land rights in England—in Northumberland, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire—though he no longer held these lands after 1209.^[7] Thomas appears to have raped someone at York in this era, an offence for which he received a royal pardon in 1212 at the request of the Scottish king William the Lion.^[1]

Thomas made much of his career fighting in Ireland, starting from 1212 when, accompanied by sons of

Nonetheless, from 1210 King John had already set about trying to conquer Ulster west of the River Bann, and granted much of what are now counties Antrim, Londonderry and Tyrone to Thomas's brother Alan, the grant later being extended to include Thomas.^[15] Thomas himself was granted the core territories of Tír Eoghain in 1213, but the grant was "speculative" [Oram] and Thomas never became ruler of Tír Eoghain.^[16]

He did however, with English help, construct a castle at

The Galloway lands in Ulster were threatened by Hugh de Lacy's return to the earldom of Ulster.^[20] The former earl of Ulster had previously fallen out of favour with the king, and suffered forfeiture.^[21] He returned to force his way back into power in Ulster and by 1227 had forced King Henry to acknowledge his claim to the earldom.^[21]

In the process Coleraine castle had been destroyed, and although they held on to much of their gains until at least 1226,

Sometime before 1210 Thomas had been married to

Thomas attended the coronation of the new Scottish king, Alexander II, at Scone on 6 December 1214.^[26] During the 1210s he confirmed and witnessed charters of Coupar Angus Abbey, and c. 1227 issues a confirmation to Dunfermline Abbey of its rights regarding the church of Moulin in Atholl.^[26]

The Chronicle of Melrose recorded Thomas's death in 1231, and noted that he was buried in the abbey of Coupar Angus.^[27] In July 1230 Thomas had been preparing ships as Henry III was planning an expedition to western France.^[1] It is possible that Thomas died in some kind of tournament accident, because in 1252 a vassal of the earl of Dunbar named Patrick, son of Constantine of Goswick, would receive a pardon for killing Thomas.^[1]

Countess Isabella subsequently married Alan Durward, but they had no sons (though may have had a daughter).^[28] Thomas left one son by his wife Isabella, Patrick [Padraig], who became mormaer of Atholl in 1242 after the death of his mother.^[29] Thomas also left at least one illegitimate son, Alan [Ailean].^[1]

Patrick was murdered the same year, probably by Walter Bisset of Aboyne, husband of Thomas's sister Ada.^[1] The Anglo-Norman Bissets had been active in Scotland for some years and were introduced to Ulster either by Hugh de Lacy or by the Galloway family, and were to control much of the Galloway's former Ulster lands in their place.^[30] It is likely that the murder was provoked by the disputed inheritance in Antrim, the Bissets subsequently securing their takeover of the Galloway Antrim lordship.^[31] Patrick was succeeded in Atholl by his aunt Forbhlaith.^[32]