Michael Ochiltree
Roman Catholic bishop
Michael Ochiltree [Ouchtre] (d. 1445 x 1447) was a 15th-century Scottish prelate and administrator. A close associate of King James I of Scotland, from the late 1410s he rose in rank from canon to Dean of Dunblane and then Bishop of Dunblane. Ochiltree was responsible for the coronation of King James II of Scotland, and he obtained a grant from the crown which allowed the comparatively small diocese of Dunblane to attain historically unprecedented viability.
Biography
Early life
He probably came from Ochiltree in East Ayrshire; according to one source, he was the son of a priest and an unmarried woman, though this is contradicted by another source that claims he was the son of a married man and an unmarried woman; he was however certainly regarded as illegitimate, and later had to gain a dispensation for his illegitimacy. As a young man, Ochiltree obtained a Bachelorate in Canon Law from the University of Paris. He became a canon of the diocese of Dunblane and held the vicarage of Strogeith by 1418.
Early career
Ochiltree was involved in a long dispute at the Papal curia over the deanery of Dunblane; his opponents were John Stewart and then John de Keremor. Bishop William Stephani had appointed Ochiltree as dean following the death of the previous dean, probably Donald de Bute; however, the pope appointed John Stewart, M.A., B.L., who was rector of the parish of Flysk and bastard son of King Robert II of Scotland.
Litigation proceeded at Rome.
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This entry incorporates text from “Michael Ochiltree” 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.