Thomas, Earl of Mar

Thomas, Earl of Mar, (c. 1330-1377) was a 14th-century Earl of Mar, an earldom located in the County of Aberdeen, Scotland. He is sometimes styled Mormaer of Mar since mormaer was the Scottish equivalent of the English word earl. Because the identification and numbering of the ancient earls of Mar is debatable, Thomas is variously numbered the ninth, tenth, or thirteenth. of the ancient earls. He was a son of Domhnall II of Mar, who fell at the Battle of Dupplin Moor in 1332.

Since Thomas was still in his minority at the time of his father’s death, King Edward III of England, with whom Scotland was battling in the Scottish Wars of Independence, placed Thomas in the care of his (Thomas's) step-father, William Carsewell. He was prevented from receiving the earldom by Richard, 2nd Baron Talbot, who claimed the title Lord of Mar in the right of his wife, Elizabeth de Comyn. In the tumultuous years that followed Dupplin Moor, Thomas’s grandmother, Lady Christina Bruce, held the seat of the earls of Mar, Kildrummy Castle. When she died in 1357, the castle passed to Thomas along with her lands and lordship, which were called the Earldom of Garioch.

In 1351, Thomas was one of the ambassadors sent to England to negotiate the ransom of Scotland's king, David II, who was prisoner there. When David was eventually released in 1357, Thomas was one of the seven lords “from whom three were to be selected as hostages” until the king’s ransom was paid. As Earl of Mar (as he was styled in 1357), Thomas was made Great Chamberlain of Scotland in 1358. Thomas is said to have favored England’s king, Edward III, inasmuch as the English king had granted him a pension of 600 merks per annum. In addition, the English king agreed to pay Thomas £600 sterling yearly if he lost his lands in Scotland. Thomas agreed to serve the English king by fighting in England’s war with France in 1360. In 1362, he was sent as a Scottish ambassador to negotiate with England, and in 1369 he was one of the guarantees of a truce between the two nations.

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