Earl of Angus
ruler of the medieval Scottish province of Angus
The Mormaer or Earl of Angus was the ruler of the medieval Scottish province of Angus. The title, in the Peerage of Scotland, is held by the Duke of Hamilton, and is used as a courtesy title for the eldest son of the Duke's eldest son.
History
Mormaers
Angus is one of the oldest attested mormaerdoms, with the earliest attested mormaer, Dubacan of Angus, known to have lived in the early 10th century, as recorded in the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba. Angus was, according to the doubtful and legendary text de Situ Albanie, one of the seven original mormaerdoms of the Pictish kingdom of Alba, said to have been occupied by seven brothers, of whom Angus (Oengus) was the eldest. Despite this, the mormaers of Angus are among the most obscure of all. After the death of Mormaer Maol Chaluim, in probably about 1240, the mormaerdom passed through the marriage of his daughter Matilda, to the line of the Norman Gilbert de Umfraville.
Ogilvy Earls
The lands of Clan Ogilvy, in Angus, was ruled by a mormaer; one of the ancient Celtic nobles of Scotland who became the first earls. The title of Moramer of Angus became Earl of Angus. Gillebride, Earl of Angus, received a Barony from King William the Lion in 1163, and bestowed upon his son, Gilbert, the lands of Wester Powrie, Ogilvy, and Kyneithin. The top left quadrant displays the Ogilvy crest; argent, a lion passant, guardant, Gules, crowned with an imperial crown and collared with an open one, Proper.
“Earl of Angus” enters the record as ruler of the medieval Scottish province of Angus. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Earl, Angus and ruler can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Earl of Angus” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Earl, Angus and ruler provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1277218. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1240 and 1163.
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This entry incorporates text from “Earl of Angus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.