Dunstaffnage
Dunstaffnage is a medieval castle located in Western Scotland near Oban above the Firth of Loin. It was built some time before 1240 by the MacDougall clan. The height upon which Dunstaffnage is located has been occupied since as early as the 7th century, but only became the seat of the MacDougalls in the 13th. The current stone castle was begun by Duncan MacDougall and then enlarged by his son, Ewen, who styled himself “King of the Isles”. He built the three round towers and enlarged the hall that are among the features of the castle still visible today. Also still standing are the walls, including some restored parapet walks, the round towers, the gatehouse, the internal range, and a free-standing chapel that also dates to the 13th century. In the 14th century, the MacDougall’s made the mistake of backing Read more…
Dafydd ap Llywelyn, Prince of Wales (d. 1246)
Dafydd, the only legitimate son of Llywelyn Fawr (Llywelyn ap Iowerth) was stuck between a rock and a hard place. His father was determined that he become the Prince of Wales and hold the country together upon Llywelyn’s death, but at the same time, his illegitimate older brother, Gruffydd, by Welsh law had an equal claim to the throne. The possibility that Gruffydd was erratic and temperamental and perhaps not as suited to ruling a princedom as Dafydd was irrelevant. Even had Gruffydd been all that Llywelyn wanted in a son, he was not legitimate. Among the Welsh, any child was reckoned legitimate if his father acknowledged him, which Llywelyn had. But the Church did not and the powers-that-were in England believed that the Welsh were barbaric for allowing a illegitimate child to inherit anything. Much less the crown of Wales. So Gruffydd Read more…
The Succession of 1290 (Scotland)
When Alexander III of Scotland died in 1286 by falling off a cliff (which is another whole story–what king dies falling off a cliff when riding from one castle to another alone in the fog? Whatever.), he left Scotland without a king. He had one living grandchild, Margaret, otherwise known as the ‘Maid of Norway’. She was the child of Alexander’s daughter, who’d died at her birth, and Erik, the King of Norway. The succession was already in trouble after King Alexander’s only son died, two years earlier: “When Prince Alexander died on 28 January 1284, leaving only the king’s granddaughter Margaret living out of his descendants, Alexander III summoned all thirteen Earls of Scotland, twenty-four barons and the heads of the three main Gaelic kindreds of the West, Alexander of Argyll, Aonghas Mór of Islay and Alan MacRuari of Garmoran. At Scone on 5 February Read more…
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