Dunbar

The Dunbars were the comital family of south-eastern Scotland, holding an earldom known as Dunbar, Lothian or March. They descended from Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria, who after the Norman Conquest lost his English earldom and settled at Dunbar under the Scottish king; his son Gospatric II was the first to style himself earl.

In 1291 the eighth earl, Patrick, was among the competitors for the Scottish crown. His son Patrick, the ninth earl, surrendered Berwick after Halidon Hill in 1333, briefly served the English, then returned to the Scottish side. In 1338 his wife Agnes Randolph, called Black Agnes, defended Dunbar Castle for five months against the Earl of Salisbury.

The family's power ended when parliament declared the titles and estates of George, eleventh Earl of March, forfeit in 1435. A younger branch continued as the lords and later earls of Home from 1473.