Drummond history

The Drummond family starts, like most noble Scottish families, with its clan origins. As is the case with most clans, the history of clan Drummond is something of a legend. The exact truth is probably hard to determine, but all accounts point to a Hungarian prince Maurice (son of King Andreas from Arpad) coming to Scotland in either 1055or 1066 to found clan Drummond. Oral history claims that Maurice came to Scotland with Edward the Exile (of the English throne). What we know for sure, is that Edward came to England with his children Edgar and Margaret. He died shortly after arriving there, leaving his children to live at court with their mother Agatha. After ascending to the throne in 1066, Edgar surrendered to William of Normandy at the battle of Berkhamsted within two months. Of Maurice, no evidence of his whereabouts is known at this point. He had by this time apparently rendered some service to the descendants of Edward the Exile, because his descendants were given the lands of Drymen (out of which the name Drummond evolved). The first of this family line was Malcolm of Drymen. With the family name of Drymen (or Drummond) also came the governorship of Lennox, a region near Glasgow on the western side of the country.
The earliest written references to the Drymens (in the district of Lennox) date back to 1199. In this period a certain Gilbert de Drummyn (chaplain to the Earl of Levenax) was witness to a charter signed by his Earl. A descendant of his, Malcolm de Drymen was witness to several charters signed by the third Earl of Levenax, between 1225 and 1270. He already owned several lands around Lennox, but these were not near as extensive as the ones that the family would later be handed by royal decree.
After the foundation of the clan, it was not until the fourteenth century that a recorded clan chief, with family lands, actually used the name Drummond. Malcolm Beg fought at the battle of Bannockburn in 1314, after which king Robert I granted him lands in Perthshire. This was done as payment in return for excellent services rendered during that battle. The grant of lands after the battle of Bannockburn is generally considered to be the start of the noble line of Drummond. Later, in 1345 Clan chief John Lord Drummond married an heiress of the Montfichets, by which means he obtained the castle at Stobhall, making it the Drummond Clan Home in later centuries. Due to some untimely deaths, this family home would be out of sight for the next century though. John was the first of the line to actually use the name ‘Drummond, instead of ‘Drymen’.
With the introduction of the name Drummond, and the grant of the Perthshire lands, the influence of the clan started to grow. Two of Malcolm Beg’s grandsons were to later swear fealty to Edward I, while his great-granddaughter Annabella gave birth to a boy who would grow up to be king James I of Scotland. She had married Earl John Stewart, who was High Steward of Scotland at the time and later ascended to the throne as King Robert III of Scotland. This marriage tied Clan Drummond ever closer to the Scottish throne, which some of the other (Lowland) Clans considered a worrisome development. Thus, by the early fifteenth century, Clan Drummond was well-established, but also drawing jealous looks from their peers.