Donnchadh, Earl of Mar


Donnchadh of Mar is the fifth known Mormaer of Mar or Earl of Mar, 1203–1244.
Donnchadh was the son of Morggán and Agnes. Donnchadh benefited from the introduction of feudal primogeniture as a custom, as it enabled him and his kin to exclude the descendants of Gille Críst, whose contemporary leader was Thomas de Lundin, from the succession. Perhaps in gratitude, he named his oldest son William after King William I, the probable source of the innovation in Mar's inheritance custom. He married Orabillis of Nessius, by whom he fathered William, and died in 1244.