Mariota, Countess of Ross

Who was Mariota, Countess of Ross?

Mariota, Countess of Ross was the daughter of Euphemia I, Countess of Ross and her husband, the crusading war-hero Walter Leslie, Lord of Ross. Upon the death of her brother, Alexander Leslie, Earl of Ross, she became the heir-presumptive of her niece Euphemia II, Countess of Ross although her husband Domhnall of Islay, Lord of the Isles pressed Mariota's superior claim to the earldom.

Domhnall attempted to gain control of the earldom, and sometime after 1405 but before 1411, Domhnall gained control of Dingwall Castle. In the year after the death of the nominal king Robert III of Scotland, in August 1407, Domhnall sent emissaries to England to the heir of the throne, the captive James Stewart. King Henry IV of England sent his own emissaries the following year to negotiate an alliance against Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, the Guardian of Scotland who was controlling Euphemia and the earldom.

With control over the principal seat of the earldom of Ross and support of the exiled heir to the Scottish throne, in 1411 Domhnall felt strong enough to march against Albany's main northern ally, Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar.