Crínán
(or Crónán) Crínán
(or Crónán)Crínán was killed in 1045 in a battle among the Scots, probably related to the battle five years earlier which had resulted in the death of Crínán's son Duncan I, king of Scotland, at the hands of Macbeth (ruled 1040-1057).
Date of Birth: Unknown.
Place of
Birth: Unknown.
Date of Death: 1045.
["Cath etir Albancho ar
aen-rían cur' marbad and Crínan ab Duín Calland &
sochaidhe maille fris .i. nae .xx. laech." AT s.a.
1045; "Cath eter Albanchu fein i torchair Cronan, ab
Duine Caillen." AU s.a. 1045; "Cath etir
Albanchaib etorra pfein, a torchair Cronán, ab Dúin cuillend."
ALC s.a. 1045]
Place of Death: Unknown.
Father: Unknown.
See the Commentary section.
Mother: Unknown.
Spouse: Bethóc, daughter of Máel Coluim (Malcolm) II, king of Scotland.
Child:
See the page of Duncan I.
Donnchad mac Crínáin (Duncan I), d. 14×15 August 1040, king of Scotland;
m. Suthen.
Probable child:
Son of a Crinán (the same one?)
Maldred, ancestor of the earls of
Dunbar;
m. Ealdgyth, daughter of Uhtred,
earl of Northumbria.
Maldred is given as a son of a Crinán in three of the works of
Simeon of Durham, with Crínán given the title of
"thane" (tein) in one of these works. Maldred
married Ealdgyth, daughter of Uhtred, earl of Northumbria, by
whom he Dolphin, Waltheof, and Cospatric (ancestor of the House
of Dunbar) ["Postea vero illo, scilicet Ucthredo,
proficiente magis et magis in re militari, rex Ethelredus filiam
suam Elfgivam ei copulavit uxorem. Ex qua habuit filiam
Aldgitham, quam pater in conjugium dedit Maldredo filio Crinan
tein, ex qua Maldredus Cospatricum, patrem Dolphini et Walteofi,
et Cospatrici." Sim. Durh., De Obsessione Dunelmi,
c. 2 (1: 216); "... Cospatricus, filius Maldredi filii
Crinani ... Erat enim ex matre Algitha, filia Uchtredi comitis,
quam habuit ex Algiva filia Agelredi Regis. Hanc Algitham pater
dedit in conjugium Maldredo filio Crinani." Sim. Durh.,
Historia Regum, c. 159 (2: 199); "Deinde
Uctredus filius Walthefi administravit comitatum omnium
Northanhymbrorum provinciarum. Huic rex Eathelredus suam filiam
Ælfgeovam dederat uxorem. Ex qua filiam habens Aldgitham, dedit
in conjugium prædiviti cuidam, Maldredo filio Crinani: de qua
habuit Cospatricum comitem, patrem Dolphini, Walthefi, et
Cospatrici." Sim. Durh., De Primo Saxonum Adventu
(2: 383)]. Anderson states that Maldred appears to have ruled in
Cumbria [ESSH 1: 577], but there does not seem to be a clear
source for that statement [however, see ESSH 2: 37 for the
possible Cumbrian origin of Maldred's son Cospatric I]. No
primary source explicitly identifies the Crínán who was
Maldred's father with the Crínán who was Duncan's father.
Supposed father (chronologically doubtful):
Donnchad
(Duncan), d. 965, abbot of
Dunkeld.
Since the abbacy of Dunkeld may have been hereditary in
Crínán's family (his grandson Æthelred held the title), it has
sometimes been suggested that Crínán was possibly the son of
this earlier abbot of Dunkeld whose death is known from both the
Irish and Scottish sources [e.g., AU; ESSH 1: 471, 473, 577; KKES
252]. While the relationship is not impossible, the chronology is
very long (if true, Crinán would be eighty at his death in
battle even if born in the year of his father's death), and there
is no known evidence to support it. The alleged relationship
cannot be accepted without further evidence.
ALC = W. M. Hennessy, ed. & trans., Annals of Loch Cé (Rolls Series 54, London, 1871).
AT = Whitley Stokes, ed. & trans., "The Annals of Tigernach", Revue Celtique 16 (1895), 374-419; 17 (1896), 6-33, 116-263, 337-420; 18 (1897), 9-59, 150-303, 374-91.
AU = Seán Mac Airt and Gearóid Mac Niocaill, The Annals of Ulster (Dublin, 1983).
ESSH = Alan Orr Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1922, reprinted Stamford, 1990). [Contains English translations of many of the primary records]
KKES = Marjorie Ogilvy Anderson, Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland (Edinburgh, Totowa, NJ, 1973).
Sim. Durh. = Thomas Arnold, ed., Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia, 2 vols. (Rolls Series 75, 1882-5).
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 5 August 2001.
Revision uploaded 20 June 2010 (added quotes from Simeon of Durham).