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Ethelred of Scotland


Ethelred (died c. 1093 Edelret mac Maíl Coluim or Æthelred Margotsson) was the son of King Malcolm III of Scotland (Gaelic Máel Coluim III) and his wife Margaret of Wessex, the third oldest of the latter and the probable sixth oldest of the former. He took his name, almost certainly, from Margaret's great-grandfather Æthelred the Unready. He became the lay abbot of Dunkeld.

Although four of Ethelred’s brothers (both older and younger) were kings of Scotland, Etheldred was debarred from the succession for reasons unknown. His older half-brother was King Duncan II of Scotland (the son of Malcolm III's first wife, Ingibiorg Finnsdottir). He reigned from May 1094 to 12 November 1094. Of his full brothers (the sons of Margaret), Edgar reigned from 1097 to 1107; Alexander I, from 1107 to 1124; and David I, from 1124 to 1153. Another brother, Edward, died alongside his father at the Battle of Alnwick in Northumberland in 1093. His brother Edmund became a monk.

Though called the abbot of Dunkeld, Ethelred was not necessarily a churchman. It has been argued that because of the decaying state of the Celtic Church, abbacies in this time period “were often held by laymen, who drew the revenues and appointed churchmen to perform the ecclesiastical offices.”

Along with the appointment as lay abbot of Dunkeld, Ethelred was granted extensive territories, which extended on both sides of the Firth of Forth. From these lands, he made substantial gifts to the Church. North of the firth, for example, he gave the lands of Ardmore to the Culdees of Loch Leven “with every freedom, and without any exaction or demand whatever in the world from bishop, king, or earl.” South of the firth, in Midlothian, he founded the church and parish of Hales, giving the lands of Hales to the Church of the Holy Trinity at Dunfermline.”


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