Background
As a child of the previous Mormaer, he was entitled to succeed his father through primogeniture, but not to lead his kin-group, Clann MacDuib.
The Scholar Justiciar of Scotia
As a child of the previous Mormaer, he was entitled to succeed his father through primogeniture, but not to lead his kin-group, Clann MacDuib.
Like previous Mormaers of Fife, Donnchad II was appointed Justiciar of Scotia (ie Scotland North of the Forth). Donnchad"s minority also meant that Ferchar, Mormaer of Strathearn, took supreme place as head of the Gaelic nobility and guide for the boy-king Máel Coluim IV. The scholar Geoffrey Barrow suggests that it was during Donnchad"s tenure that Beinn MacDuibh took its names, id est (that is) when Donnchad II acquired land in that area (Barrow, 1980, 86). Donnchad, like other Mormaers of Fife, kept in close association with the king.
His name is recorded, among other places, in a charter granted to the priory on the Isle of May.
Donnchad"s person was required to be a hostage following the defeat of William the Lion and the Treaty of Falaise, although in fact he certainly sent someone else in his place.
(Barrow, 2003, 106). Donnchad II had three sons, Mael Coluim, Donnchad, and Dabíd (Malcolm, Duncan, and David), two notably named for the Scottish Kings. He had a fourth child, a daughter, whose name is unknown.
In 1152, on the death of Scottish King Dabid I"s son Henry of Scotland, Donnchad I had escorted Máel Coluim IV, introducing him as the royal heir.