General Notes

The district of Moray remained for a long time separate from both the area of Scotland occupied by the Northern Picts and that of the Southern Picts, but its rulers were not strictly speaking Earls. It was finally conquered by the Scots proper in 1130 and thereafter held by the Kings of Scotland as a royal possession till 1312. In that year Thomas Randolph, whose mother was sister of Robert I the Bruce, was created Earl of Moray. He led the left wing of the Scottish army at the victory over the English of Bannockburn in 1314, having a few months before retaken Edinburgh Castle from its temporary English captors. The year after Bannockburn he was declared Guardian of the Realm in the event of the crown descending to a minor. He accordingly became Regent on Robert I's death in 1329. [Burke's Peerage]

EARLDOM OF MORAY [SCT] (I)

THOMAS RANDOLPH, only son and heir of Thomas RANDOLPH of Strathdon, sometime Chamberlain of Scotland, by (-----), sister of ROBERT I [SCT], and daughter of Robert (BRUCE or BRUS), afterwards EARL OF CARRICK, was present, as Thomas Randal le fyz, with his father at Baliol's homage to Edward I at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 26 December 1292. He rebelled with Bruce, perhaps even attending him on his secret journey to Scotland in 1306, and was taken prisoner by the English at Methven, 19 June. As Lord of Nithsdale he participated in the letter of the Scottish magnates to Philip IV of France, March 1308/9. He was created EARL OF MORAY [SCT] between 12 April and 29 October 1312. The extensive grants he received are evidence of the esteem in which he was held by, and of the services he rendered to, Robert Bruce. In March 1313/4 be made a sensational capture of Edinburgh Castle from the English, and he was in command of the left wing at the battle of Bannockburn, 24 June 1314. He attended the Parliament [SCT] at Ayr, 26 April 1315, at which, under the Act of Succession, he was named Guardian of the King or his brother should die during the minority of the heir to the throne. In Edward Bruce's invasion of Ireland, 1315-17, he took a notable part both in the actual fighting and in the raising of men; and in 1318 participated in the capture of Berwick by surprise. The following year Moray and Douglas raided the north of Yorkshire, and defeated a force raised by the Archbishop, in what was jocularly called the Chapter of Mitton. Moray's name stands second in the list of Scottish magnates who addressed the Pope in defence of Scottish independence, 6 April 1320. At the time of the ineffectual negotiations between the Scots and the disaffected Earl of Lancaster, 1321-22, Moray was acting as Lieutenant of the King of Scotland, and was at Corbridge, in Northumberland, in January 1321/2; later in the year he carried havoc into Durham and Yorks, and in the autumn fought with the King in the attack on the English near Byland, when Edward II was forced to flee, and was nearly captured in York. In May 1323 Moray was in England with an embassy which concluded a truce at York on 30 May for 13 years. Later in the year at Avignon he obtained from the Pope his long withheld concession to address Bruce as King of Scotland. In April 1325 he was appointed chief of an embassy to France, which, at Corbeil, in April 1326, concluded an alliance against England. In 1327 the short-lived truce was broken; Moray and Douglas harried Northumberland and balked the English forces under the young King Edward III. They were appointed jointly to make the arrangements for the marriage of the infant Prince David of Scotland with Joan, sister of Edward III, which was celebrated 12 July 1328 at Berwick. On the death of Bruce, 7 June 1329, under whom the Earl had been Justiciar of Scotland north of the Forth, Moray became Regent of Scotland, and so continued till his death, 20 July 1332, at Musselburgh, on his way to meet the invasion of the disinherited lords under Edward Baliol.

He married Isabel, daughter of John STEWART of Bonkyll, by Margaret, daughter and heir of Sir Alexander DE BONKYLL. She was living 16 July 1351. [Complete Peerage IX:167-9, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]

·  Change Date: 7 MAY 2004