Early Mormaers or Earls
The first Mormaer of Mar is usually regarded as Ruadrí (fl. 1131), mentioned in the Book of Deer. Some modern sources give earlier mormaers, i.e. Muirchertach (Latinized as Martachus) and Gartnait (sometimes Gratnach), mentioned respectively in charters of the reigns of king Máel Coluim III (relating to the Céli Dé establishment of Loch Leven) and king Alexander I (relating to the monastic establishment of Scone), though in these cases certain identification with a particular province is difficult. The accounts of the Battle of Clontarf in some of the Irish annals name "Domnall son of Eimen son of Cainnech", Mormaer of Mar in Alba", as among those killed alongside Brian Boru.
The principal seats of the Mormaerdom were Migvie and Doune of Invernochty. The Mormaerdom seems initially to have rotated between two kin-groups, that represented by Morggán, and that represented by Gille Críst. The Mormaerdom was split upon the accession of Donnchadh, a descendant of Morggán. Donnchadh got the title of Mormaer and the wealthier and militarily more useful upland parts of Mar, and Thomas Durward, a descendant of Gille Críst through the female line, got the coastal, low-lying arable land. The line of Mormaers ended when Mormaer Thomas died childless in 1374.
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