Colban, Earl of Fife

(Redirected from Colbán of Fife)

Colban, Earl of Fife (b. c. 1247–1253, d. 1270/2) was ruler of Fife in Scotland. The son of Earl Malcolm and his wife, one of the daughters of Llywelyn the Great (probably Susanna fl. 1228),[2] he succeeded his father while still a teenager on Malcolm's death in 1266. He had been knighted by King Alexander III in 1264.

Arms possibly borne by Earl Colban, as shown (without colour) on his seal[1]

His wife's name was Anna, and she was likely one of the three daughters and coheiresses of Sir Alan Durward. Colban and Anna had a son, Duncan, who succeeded as Earl of Fife at the age of eight, and a daughter, Marjory, who married Alan, Earl of Menteith.[3] Colban died while still a young man. His date of death is disputed, and depends on what evidence one interprets. G.W.S. Barrow gives 1272, but Bannerman gives 1270.

References

edit
  1. ^ MacDonald, William, Scottish Armorial Seals, (Edinburgh, 1904), p. 114
  2. ^ Hurlock, Kathryn (28 October 2009). "The Welsh Wife of Malcolm, Earl of Fife (d.1266): An Alternative Suggestion". doi:10.3366/e0036924109000900. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  3. ^ J. Ravilious, The Earls of Menteith: Murdoch, Earl of Menteith and the Ferrers family of Groby, The Scottish Genealogist (March 2013), Vol. LX, No. 1, p. 14. For a discussion of the evidence that Anna was the daughter of Alan Durward, see Matthew H. Hammond, "Hostiarii Regis Scotie: the Durward family in the thirteenth century," in Steve Boardman and Alasdair Ross, eds., The Exercise of Power in Medieval Scotland, c. 1200-1500 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2003), p. 133

Bibliography

edit
  • Grant, Rev'd Alexander, "The Ancient Earls of Fife", in Sir James Balfour Paul (ed.) The Scots Peerage, Volume IV, (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. 10–11
  • 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 Kingdom of the Scots: Government, Church and Society from the Eleventh to the Fourteenth Century, (Edinburgh, 2003)
  • Ravilious, J., "The Earls of Menteith: Murdoch, Earl of Menteith and the Ferrers family of Groby", The Scottish Genealogist (March 2013), Vol. LX, No. 1, pp. 12–25.
  • Hammond, Matthew, "Hostiarii Regis Scotie: the Durward family in the thirteenth century," in Steve Boardman and Alasdair Ross, eds., The Exercise of Power in Medieval Scotland, c. 1200-1500 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2003), pp. 118–138
Preceded by Earl of Fife
1266–1270/2
Succeeded by