January 2020 Newsletter - Magna Carta Project
- Welcome New Members
- Profile of the Month: Alan of Galloway
- Project Page of the Month: Stickers
- Glossary Term: Gateway Ancestor
Welcome New Members
Profile of the Month: Alan of Galloway, d. 1234
What is one of the most powerful lords in Scotland doing as one of the "Illustrious Men" listed in the Magna Carta as advisers of King John?
Besides being Lord of Galloway, over which the Scottish king had only loose overlordship, and hereditary Constable of Scotland, Alan of Galloway had estates in England. This resulted in some conflict of allegiances.
In the first decade of the 13th century, he led an army on behalf of William the Lion, King of Scotland, against the Earl of Caithness and Orkney. In 1210 he almost certainly took part in King John's campaign in Ireland: two years later he was rewarded with 160 knights' fees in Antrim, swearing allegiance to John insofar as this did not conflict with the duties he owed the Scottish Crown, and sent 1000 men to fight with John's forces in Wales.
Alan stayed loyal to King John during the lead-up to the Magna Carta. But later in 1215 Alexander II of Scotland joined in the baronial rebellion against John and Alan acted as Alexander's chief lieutenant in the Scottish occupation of Cumberland and Westmorland. On the accession of Henry III, his English lands were confiscated, and not finally restored until 1220.
In the 1220s he took part in what might nowadays be euphemistically called a series of major international incidents: he intervened in a dispute between the King of Man and his half-brother, and when the King of Man was killed in 1229, he attempted to conquer the Kingdom of Man for his own brother Thomas. Norway was drawn in, and things came close to outright war between Scotland and Norway.
Alan died in 1234, leaving no legitimate male heir, but an illegitimate son and three surviving daughters. There was an unsuccessful rebellion in Galloway in favour of the illegitimate son. Alexander II used the opportunity to break up the lordship of Galloway and increase royal control.
My research on Alan took me not only to standard sources but also to a 1988 PhD thesis on the lordship of Galloway up to 1250. One development of recent years is that some universities have made PhD theses available on the internet. ~ Michael
Project Page of the Month: Stickers!
This month's featured Project Page is Magna Carta Stickers. That page lists the project's three approved stickers, each of which adds a project-maintained category to a profile that displays it. They're practical, and are used for managing the project.
Then there is the Descendant sticker, which is a really fun sticker that WikiTree has & which the Magna Carta Project has tailored for your enjoyment. See Template:Descendant for the generic version, and see this section of the project's Stickers page for the tailored coding.
If you've seen my profile page, you know I love stickers! I've used the Descendant sticker to display a bunch of my ancestors - click here to see what you can do with the generic Descendant sticker. ~ Liz
Glossary Term: Gateway Ancestor / gateway ancestor
The Magna Carta Project uses the (upper case) term "Gateway Ancestors" to refer to the immigrant ancestors who are within the scope of the project - mainly the 200+ Gateway Ancestors whose descent from a Magna Carta Surety Baron are documented by Douglas Richardson in Magna Carta Ancestry.
A gateway ancestor (lowercase) is a term applied to any ancestor, usually an immigrant ancestor, who is descended from an important figure in history (e.g., a surety baron, Edward III, William the Conquerer, Charlemagne).
For these terms and other project-specific terms, see the project's Glossary. See Category:Glossaries to explore other project's glossaries. ~ Liz
