John de Menteith
Encyclopedia
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
nobleman.
He was born to Mary
Mary I, Countess of Menteith
Maire inghean Mhuireadhaich or Mary, daughter of Muireadhach II, Mormaer of Menteith, was Countess of Menteith, successor to her sister Isabella . She inherited the title from her father, and married Walter Bailloch, son of Walter Stewart, 3rd High Steward of Scotland...
, Countess of Menteith
Earl of Menteith
The Mormaer or Earl of Menteith was originally the ruler of the province of Menteith in the Middle Ages. The first mormaer is usually regarded as Gille Críst, simply because he is the earliest on record. The title was held in a continuous line from Gille Crist until Muireadhach IV , although the...
and her husband Walter "Bailloch" Stewart
Walter Bailloch
Walter Bailloch or Walter Bailloch Stewart , was third son of Walter Stewart, 3rd High Steward of Scotland, and Earl of Menteith jure uxoris. His wife was Mary I, Countess of Menteith...
, Earl of Menteith jure uxoris
Jure uxoris
Jure uxoris is a Latin term that means "by right of his wife" or "in right of a wife". It is commonly used to refer to a title held by a man whose wife holds it in her own right. In other words, he acquired the title simply by being her husband....
. He and his older brother, Alexander
Alexander, Earl of Menteith
Alexander of Menteith , son of Mary I, Countess of Menteith and Walter Bailloch Stewart, her husband, was a Mormaer or Earl of Menteith for most of the 1290s. He is first noted with his brother John de Menteith in a compact between Bruce and the Stewarts on 20 September 1286, at Turnberry, Carrick...
, Earl of Menteith, replaced their paternal Stewart surname in favour of Menteith, which earned him the nickname Fause (False) Menteith. John possessed the land of Ruskie
Ruskie
Ruskie is a village in the Stirling council area, Scotland. Location: . Postal code: FK8. It is located 2.8 miles/4.5km from Thornhill.-External links:** in Google Maps...
, Stirlingshire
Stirlingshire
Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling is a registration county of Scotland, based around Stirling, the former county town. It borders Perthshire to the north, Clackmannanshire and West Lothian to the east, Lanarkshire to the south, and Dunbartonshire to the south-west.Until 1975 it was a county...
,
He was Governor of Dumbarton Castle
Dumbarton Castle
Dumbarton Castle has the longest recorded history of any stronghold in Great Britain. It overlooks the Scottish town of Dumbarton, and sits on a plug of volcanic basalt known as Dumbarton Rock which is high.-Iron Age:...
, an appointment made by Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
who was keen to secure the fortification as a major access route into Scotland by sea. Tradition has it that Menteith betrayed Sir William Wallace
William Wallace
Sir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who became one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence....
to English soldiers, which led to Wallace's death and his later nickname Fause Menteith ("Menteith the treacherous").
Wyntoun, whose "Metrical Chronicle" was written in 1418, says:
Tuk in Glasgow William Walays;
And sent hym until Ingland sune,
There was he quartayrd and undone."
The English chronicler Piers Langtoft
Piers Langtoft
Peter Langtoft, also known as Peter of Langtoft was an English historian and chronicler who took his name from the small village of Langtoft in the East Riding of Yorkshire....
states that Menteith discovered the retreat of Wallace through the treacherous information of Jack Short
Jack Short
Jack Short was the betrayer of Scottish legend Sir William Wallace. He was Wallace's servant, and relayed information to the Scottish baron John de Menteith, resulting in Wallace's capture and execution. According to the chronicler Piers Langtoft, Wallace had slain Jack's brother.- References :...
, his servant, and that he came under cover of night and seized him in bed. A passage in the Scala Chronica, quoted by John Leland, notes, "William Walleys was taken of the Counte of Menteith, about Glasgow, and sent to King Edward, and after was hanged, drawn, and quartered at London."
Menteith married Helena, daughter of Gartnait, Earl of Mar
Gartnait, Earl of Mar
Gartnait of Mar - Gartnait mac Domhnaill - was the eighth known Mormaer of Mar, ruling from somewhere around 1301, perhaps as early as 1297, until his death in 1305...
, by whom he had two sons, Sir John de Menteith the younger and Walter, and one daughter known by name, Johanna. He was said to have had two other daughters.
See also
- Wars of Scottish IndependenceWars of Scottish IndependenceThe Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the independent Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries....
- William WallaceWilliam WallaceSir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who became one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence....
- Lake Menteith
- Alexander, Earl of MenteithAlexander, Earl of MenteithAlexander of Menteith , son of Mary I, Countess of Menteith and Walter Bailloch Stewart, her husband, was a Mormaer or Earl of Menteith for most of the 1290s. He is first noted with his brother John de Menteith in a compact between Bruce and the Stewarts on 20 September 1286, at Turnberry, Carrick...
Sources
- Paul, James BalfourJames Balfour PaulSir James Balfour Paul, KCVO was the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the officer responsible for heraldry in Scotland, from 1890 until the end of 1926....
, The Scots Peerage, Vol. VI, (Edinburgh, 1909)