Patrick III, Earl of Dunbar

Patrick III, Earl of Dunbar, was a thirteenth-century Scottish magnate whose estates and castles made him a major power in the south-east of the kingdom. He served the Scottish crown while also holding interests that required negotiation with England.

Dunbar’s position on the Anglo-Scottish frontier required repeated negotiation between loyalty to the Scottish crown and the realities of English power. He took part in royal government and military affairs during the reigns of Alexander II and Alexander III, while his family’s control of Dunbar Castle made the earldom strategically important. The dynasty remained one of the dominant aristocratic houses of south-eastern Scotland for generations.

In Nigel Tranter’s Envoy Extraordinary, Patrick, Earl of Dunbar, would rather develop the wool trade of his sheep-covered Lammermuir estates than involve himself in warfare or royal intrigue. In Nigel Tranter’s True Thomas, Tranter places him in the reign of Alexander III, serving the powerful Earl of Dunbar while Scotland’s magnates compete for land, influence and access to the young king.