General Notes

Edelrad [son of Malcolm III], apparently Earl of Fife, who fl. early 12th century and was also Abbot of Dunkeld; possibly the same person as Eth. [Burke's Peerage, p. 2538]

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Burke's Peerage, page 1058, on the Earldom of Fife, previous creations:

Fife, constituted one of the Mormaerships into which much of pre-1st Millennium Scotland was divided.  By the beginning of the 12th century the former Mormaer of Fife was beginning to be called Earl of Fife.  The first of the new designation seems to have been Beth, who as either Earl of Fife or Moray (more probably the former) is recorded as having been active in 1115.  (The historic figure Macbeth was son of a Mormaer of Moray, and since "Mac" means "son of" there may be a connection.) However, another figure referred to as Earl of Fife about the same time, that is to say during the reign of David I (reigned 1124-1153), is a shadowy personage called in contemporary documents either "Ed" or "Head" and identified by leading authorities with Edelread, son of Malcolm III (reigned 1058-93).  Yet a third Earl of Fife appears to have existed in the person of Constantine, who died in the late 1120's.  (It is possible that "Ed/Head" was really Earl of Forthreve.

The first person to hold the Earldom of Fife on a hereditary basis may well have been Gillemicel MacDuff, who died about the mid-1130's. Certainly the title remained in his family, passing almost always from father to son, till 1353, when the 8th Earl's only child, Elizabeth or Isabel, became Countess of Fife.  She married four times, each of her husbands being known as Earl of Fife in right of his wife.  She died without issue, having made over the Earldom to her second husband's brother Robert Stewart, Earl of Menteith, her 2nd husband and he being second and third sons respectively of Robert II.