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Ethelred of Scotland

Scottish royal

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ4444623 ↗
Source-derived summary

Ethelred (Irish: Edelret mac Maíl Coluim, Old English: Æthelred Margotsson; c. 1072 – c. 1093) was the son of King Malcolm III of Scotland (Irish: Máel Coluim III) and his wife Margaret of Wessex (Saint Margaret of Scotland); third child of his mother and the probable sixth child of his father. He took his name, almost certainly, from Margaret's great-grandfather Æthelred the Unready. He became the lay abbot of Dunkeld.

Brothers

Ethelred had four brothers who would rule as kings of Scotland. His older half-brother was King Duncan II of Scotland (the son of Malcolm III's first wife, Ingibiorg Finnsdottir). Duncan reigned from May 1094 to 12 November 1094. Of his full brothers (the sons of Margaret), Edgar reigned from 1097 to 1107; Alexander I, from 1107 to 1124; and David I, from 1124 to 1153. Another brother, Edward, died alongside his father at the Battle of Alnwick in Northumberland in 1093.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Ethelred of Scotland” as scottish royal. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ethelred, Scotland and Scottish.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1072, 1093, 1094, 1097—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1001. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Ethelred, Scotland and Scottish providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Ethelred of Scotland”, the useful work is to connect “scottish royal” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4444623. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1072, 1093, 1094 and 1097.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ethelred of Scotland”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ethelred of Scotland primary sources, Ethelred of Scotland archive and Ethelred research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ethelred of Scotland”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Ethelred of Scotland” 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.