Laurence de Ergadia - Biography - Background

Background

Laurence is given the cognomen de Ergardia in a late note written into the margins of the Chronicle of Melrose. It is simply the Latin for "of" or "from Argyll", a region encompassing the west coast of central Scotland; it does suggest, especially if it is meant as a surname, that Laurence came from the family of the MacDougall Lords of Argyll, who used de Ergadia as a "surname" in the Latin documents of the period.

Laurence was a Dominican friar by the time he became Bishop of Argyll in 1264, which meant he would have spent many of his earlier years abroad, and must have received a university education in the process. It is notable that during the long vacancy of the bishopric between the death of Bishop William in 1241 and the election of Bishop Alan 1248 × 1250, the bishopric was for several years under the custody of Clement, Bishop of Dunblane, himself a Dominican, the first Dominican to hold a bishopric in Scotland.

This custody occurred in a period when, urged on by Bishop Clement, King Alexander II of Scotland had become more assertive in the area, particularly in relation to overlordship over its MacDougall ruler, Eóghan of Argyll. The events of that decade thus may have induced Eóghan, at Clement's urging, to send a kinsman to be trained as a Dominican, and Laurence was indeed the first of three Dominican bishops of Argyll in the following century, another of whom appears to have been a MacDougall also. It might also be noted that the bishopric of Dunblane was partly dedicated to St Laurence, after whom Laurence may have been named.