page_title: Alan of Galloway
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Alan of Galloway / Death
caption_attribution_description: English: An excerpt from folio 42v of British Library Cotton MS Julius A VII (the Chronicle of Mann). The excerpt reads in Latin "Ferkkar Comitis de Ros". The excerpt concerns Fearchar mac an tSagairt (died c. 1251).
context_page_description: Alan of Galloway, also known as Alan fitz Roland, was a leading thirteenth-century Scottish magnate. As the hereditary Lord of Galloway and Constable of Scotland, he was one of the most influential men in the Kingdom of Scotland and Irish Sea zone.
  Alan first appears in courtly circles in about 1200, about the time he inherited his father's possessions and offices. After he secured his mother's inheritance almost two decades later, Alan became one of the most powerful magnates in the Scottish realm. Alan also held lands in the Kingdom of England, and was an advisor of John, King of England concerning Magna Carta. Alan later played a considerable part in Alexander II, King of Scotland's northern English ambitions during the violent aftermath of John's repudiation of Magna Carta. Alan participated in the English colonisation of Ulster, receiving a massive grant in the region from the English king, and simultaneously aided the Scottish crown against rebel claimants in the western and northern peripheries of the Scottish realm. Alan entered into a vicious inter-dynastic struggle for control of the Kingdom of the Isles, supporting one of his kinsmen against another.
context_section_description: Thomas, Alan's brother, died in 1231, possibly from injuries suffered in a tournament accident. Alan's death, about three years later in 1234, is recorded by the Annals of Ulster, the Chronicle of Melrose, and the Chronicle of Lanercost—the later specifying the month February. Alan's body was interred at Dundrennan Abbey, a Cistercian religious house founded by his paternal great-grandfather. There amongst the monastic ruins, a particular dilapidated effigy of grey stone is generally identified as his. As the last Gallovidian ruler in the legitimate patrilineal line descended from Fergus, Alan's death brought an abrupt end to about half a century of stable Gallovidian rule under he and his father, and the lack of a legitimate male heir to succeed himself led to a sudden succession crisis.
  It is possible that Alan had hoped that his illegitimate son, Thomas, would be able succeed to the lordship. Celtic custom would not have barred the latter from the succession. According to feudal practice, however, Alan's nearest heirs were his three daughters. As it turned out, the Gallovidian succession was quickly seized upon by the Scottish crown. The prospect of Alan's illegitimate son succeeding to the lordship threatened to reignite Gallovdian interests in the Isles, and thereby threatened the welfare of the Scottish realm. On the other hand, the husbands of Alan's daughters were prominent men of Anglo-Norman descent, and the prospect of bringing about the demise of the semi-autonomous lordship, through its division between such eminent Englishmen, was an advantageous opportunity that Alexander could not pass up.
  Although it is possible that the people of Galloway regarded Alan's illegitimate son as their rightful lord, the Chronicle of Melrose states that they appealed to Alexander to take the whole lordship into his own hands, suggesting that whilst the Gallovidians were willing to accept that illegitimacy indeed excluded Alan's son from the inheritance, they were unwilling to accept female succession. Whatever the case, Alexander denied the Gallovidian's their request, quickly crushed their subsequent retaliatory uprising, and went ahead with the tripartite partitioning. One of the Scots who played a key part in the king's destruction of the Gallovidian resistance was Ferchar mac in tSagairt, Earl of Ross, a rising star in Alexander's administration, who happened to be Amlaíb Dub's father-in-law.
  Following Alan's death, the constableship passed to Roger de Quincy, husband of Alan's eldest surviving daughter, Helen. Alan's Irish lands were not inherited by his daughters. Forty years after his death, these lands are recorded in the hands of the Bissets, although precisely how this came about is uncertain. The succession of the Irish and Gallovidian lands of Alan's brother, Thomas, is also uncertain. In fact, Thomas' lands should have passed to his son, Patrick, had the latter not died on the eve of his inheritance (under suspicious circumstances, apparently at the hands of the Bissets).
caption: The name of Ferchar mac in tSagairt as it appears on folio 42v of British Library Cotton Julius A VII: "Ferkkar Comitis de Ros".[262]
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