Uilleam II, Earl of Ross

Who was Uilleam II, Earl of Ross?

Uilleam II of Ross was the second successor of Ferchar mac in tSagairt, as Mormaer of Ross.

In 1284 he joined with other Scottish noblemen who acknowledged Margaret of Norway as the heir of Alexander. At the beginning of the Wars of Scottish Independence Uilleam was captured fighting against the English at the Battle of Dunbar. After which, like many Gaelic lords, he became pro-English and one of the most early enemies of Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick. Uilleam had been in English custody, but his wife Euphemia had obtained his release, and Uilleam was appointed Edward I of England's warden of Scotland north of the Grampians.

When a band of Bruce supporters, including the Countess of Atholl, Bruce's wife Elizabeth de Burgh, his daughter Marjorie and Robert's brother Niall took refuge in St Duthac's chapel in Tain, Uilleam arrested them and handed them over to the English crown. The men were executed.

This put Uilleam in a dangerous position when the Bruce revival began in the same year, 1306. He found himself being attacked by Bruce in the south, and by Lachlan MacRuadridh, Uilleam's nominal vassal, but Bruce's ally, in the west. When Bruce came north in 1308, Uilleam submitted, receiving his Mormaerdom back from Bruce, along with a pardon and the burgh of Dingwall. This bribe and the realities of power kept Uilleam in the Bruce camp.