Bannatyne Club > Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis, e pluribus codicibus consarcinatum approximately A.D. MCCCC [i.e. 1400]

If the distinctive marks of an Eastern origin be so conspicuous as is alleged, it can
hardly be accounted for by the conquests and revolutions of the province with which
the imperfect history of the North acquaints us. We are told by theNorse writers that
Moray, with a great part of the North of Scotland, was occasionally under Norwegian
rule, and independent of the Crown of Scotland, for the greater part of two cen-
turies. Thorstein the Red, Sigurd, and Thorfin, ruled either with avowed inde-
pendenee, or with only a nominal aeknowledgment of the sovereignty of the Scottish
monarchs, from the beginning of the tenth to the middle of the eleventh century.
About the termination of their sway, the feeble light of our own history begins to
dawn, and presents us with a succession of native lords of Moray, whose names only
are preserved, but who appear to have been in some way connected with the reigning
family of Scotland, and to have drawn their followers into frequent ruinous insurrec-
tions, eitlier in maintaining their claims to the throne, or in resisting the autliority of
the ruling sovereign. 1 These were at length terminated only by the expulsion of the
out dates or events, differing from each other,
aud often inconsistent with chronology.
These remarks are by no means intended to
discourage the study of such authorities. In the
absence of better information, thcy are neces-
sary for the early history of Scotland. But they
require to be carefnlly compared, and received
with caution. Abovc aU, it must be confessed,
to still want in Scot'. .nd that fairuess, and free-
dom from sectarian bias towards a favourite
system, and that wholesome scepticism, which
are at ihe foundation of historical truth.
1 Gillcomgain Mac-Maolbryd, maormor of
Mureve, appears to have been the son of Maol-
bri/d, the son of Ruaidhri, and na r thus cousin-
german of Macbeth, who seems to have been the
son of Finnlaech, the son of the same Ruaidhri.
Mr Skene, whose authority is of great weight,
is of opinion that the Malcolm Mac-Mai
of Tighernae and the Ulster annals, who died in
1029, was really King of Scotland " ri Alban"
— as he is styled by Tighernac ; — though he is
omitted by our historians, who join his reign to
that of Malcom M'Kenneth, his successor, who
diedin 1034. It is to be observed, however, that
Finnlaech, the father of Macbeth, has the same
style in the Ulster annals (" ri A/ban") which
Tighernac gives to his nephew Malcolm. Gill-
comgain was burnt in 1032.
Lulach Mac- GiUcoihgain, maormor of Muref,
succeeded his father. He was set up for king
after Macbeth's death iu 1058. Thrce monlhs
afterwards he was defeated and killed at Essy
in Strathbolgy by Malcolm III. The son of
Lulach, styled by the Irish annalists
Maehnectai, succeeded as maormor. He died
— suam vitam infelicittr finivit — in 1085; and
was succeeded by
Angus, whose connexion with his predecessors
is unknown. He several times rebelled and set
himself up for king. In his last and most for-
midable insurrection, he seems to have possessed
himself of the whole Northern districts of Scot-
land, until he was defeated and slaiu at Stra-
cathro in 1130. Like the other Maormors of
Seotland, he began to be styled Earl.
From a charter copied by Selden, the authen-
ticity of which is questioned by Chalmers, it
appears that Gillocher, Earl of Mar, held also
the Earldom of Moray ; and that his son Mor-
gund succeeded him in both Earldoms, in the
year 1171. If that charter is to be admitted,