Mac Bethad is the first recorded High Medieval

Scotland in the High Middle Ages

The High Middle Ages of Scotland encompass Scotland in the era between the death of Domnall II in 900 AD and the death of king Alexander III in 1286...

 Bishop of Ross

Bishop of Ross

The Bishop of Ross was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Ross, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics. The first recorded bishop appears in the late 7th century as a witness to Adomnán of Iona's Cáin Adomnáin. The bishopric was based at the settlement of Rosemarkie until the mid-13th...

, a See

Episcopal See

An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...

 then located at Rosemarkie

Rosemarkie

Rosemarkie is a village on the south coast of the Black Isle peninsula in northern Scotland.-Geography:Rosemarkie lies a quarter of a mile east of the town of Fortrose...

.

He makes his only historical appearance as Macbeth Rosmarkensis Episcopus (i.e. "Mac Bethad, Bishop of Rosemarkie") in a list of witnesses to a charter granted by King David I of Scotland

David I of Scotland

David I or Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim was a 12th-century ruler who was Prince of the Cumbrians and later King of the Scots...

 to the Church of Dunfermline

Dunfermline

Dunfermline is a town and former Royal Burgh in Fife, Scotland, on high ground from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. According to a 2008 estimate, Dunfermline has a population of 46,430, making it the second-biggest settlement in Fife. Part of the town's name comes from the Gaelic word...

, confirming the previous rights of that church.

The charter is dated by its modern editor to 1128, but is more safely dated to the period between the years 1127 and 1131.

External links

• Dauvit Broun's list of 12th century Scottish Bishops