Maldred

Meldred is a character who appears in literary accounts of Sub-Roman Britain. He is portrayed as a chieftain who ruled part of what is now southern Scotland during the 6th century. A 12th-century text refers to a petty king named Meldredus who ruled in Tweeddale. The village of Drumelzier in Peeblesshire may take its name from him, and his seat of power may have been the fort of Tinnis Castle. He is a character in the literary tradition on which the Arthurian romances are based and has been suggested as the earliest named political leader associated with the Anglo-Scottish border in the post-Roman period.

Death of Lailoken

In Vita Merlini Silvestris, Meldred has Lailoken buried in the churchyard west of his fortress, near the confluence of the Powsail Burn (also called Drumelzier Burn) and the River Tweed.

Maldred of Allerdale

The literary figure Meldred may have been inspired by the later historical figure Maldred of Allerdale, an 11th-century Cumbrian nobleman. Maldred is mentioned in De obsessione Dunelmi as a son of thegn Crínán, possibly Crínán of Dunkeld, abbot of Dunkeld; if so, he would have been a younger brother of King Duncan I of Scotland. Maldred and his wife Ealdgyth, a daughter of Uhtred the Bold and granddaughter of King Æthelred the Unready, were the parents of Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria, from whom the earls of Dunbar and the earls of Home descended.