Mountfleurie
Mountfleurie SCO S NO373014 1 373 25m
Montfloo<er> 1325 x 1329 Dunf. Reg. no. 357 [Thomas Randolph earl of Moray, to the monks of Dunfermline, 40 s. from the lands of Mountfleurie ‘in the shire of Scoonie’ (in schyra Scone); see discussion]
Mountflory 1312 x 1329 RMS i app. 2, no. 104 [16th c. index; confirmation of Dunf. Reg. no. 357; Thomas Randolph earl of Moray, Cullaloe ABO and 40 s. from Mountfleurie ‘in the shire of Scoonie’ (in schira de Scoone)]
Mountflory 1312 x 1329 RMS i app. 2, no. 104 A [16th c. index; confirmation of Dunf. Reg. no. 357]
Monfloure 1452 x 1480 RMS ii no. 1444 [one of the lands belonging to the Church of St Andrews]
Monthflowrie 1587 Assumption 15 [see SCO Introduction]
Montflurie 1594 RMS vi no. 75 col. 4 [40 s. from the lands of Mountfleurie, part of the lands and income of Dumfermline Abbey, granted by James VI to Anne, queen of Scotland]
(lands of) Montflowrie 1609 RMS vii no. 153
Montflurie 1620 RMS vii no. 2151
Mountflowrie 1644 Retours (Fife) no. 680 [Alexander Gibson of Durie, in barony of Durie]
? Monufair 1654 Blaeu (Pont) East Fife
Mount Flowery 1828 SGF
Mountflourie 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
Fr mont + Fr fleuri
‘Flowery hill or mountain’. Such French names suggesting an attractive and idealised landscape are not uncommon in the middle ages. Compare, for example, Bouprie ABO (PNF 1), from French beau pré ‘beautiful meadow’. Mountfleurie may simply be an idealistic (or possibly ironic?) response to the local landscape, but note also the Norman town of Mont Fleury, on the coast not far from Bayeaux, and it is possible that medieval Norman influence in Fife led to the transfer of this name.
Mountfleurie is listed amongst the lands belonging to the Church of St Andrews in the great charter issued by James II to Bishop James Kennedy in 1452 (RMS ii no. 1444; see SCO Introduction for more details). Clearly, however, secular lordship also had a stake in this land, although it may only have been fleeting. Mountfleurie is first mentioned in a charter dating from the late 1320s issued by Thomas Randolph earl of Moray, and lord of Annandale and Man, one of the most powerful nobles in Scotland, by which he grants to Dunfermline Abbey the land of Cullaloe ABO (PNF 1), part of the barony of Aberdour which he held of the king, as well as 40 s. sterling annually from the land of Mountfleurie in the shire of Scoonie to be paid by whoever was its lord in future (per manus domini qui pro tempore fuerit). Randolph knows exactly what he wants for this money, which he seems to be paying out of someone else’s pocket: Dunfermline Abbey is to provide a measure of wax to burn (as candles) ‘as is the custom’ on three feast days in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Lady Chapel in the abbey church, as well as a monk who is also a priest to say every day forever a mass for his soul and the souls of his predecessors and successors in that chapel, where he also ordains that he be buried, and that after his death, and during the mass, one candle is to burn at his head, the other at his feet.[294] This grant might well have been made following the death of Bishop William Lamberton of St Andrews in May 1328, when we know that the revenues of the bishopric fell into royal hands (see for example ER i, 145). It may also be significant that Williams’s successor as bishop of St Andrews was James Ben, consecrated before 1 August 1328 (Fasti (Watt and Murray), 381), since James was clearly a close associate of Randolph and was with him in 1326 as one of the Scottish mission who negotiated the Treaty of Corbeil, which saw the renewal of the Franco-Scottish alliance (Barrow 1976, 355). While the lordship of the land of Mountfleurie was (back) in the hands of the bishop of St Andrews by 1452 (RMS ii no. 1444), the grant of 40 s. continued to be made to Dunfermline Abbey up to the time of the Reformation and beyond, as is seen from the list of Dunfermline’s lands and income granted to Queen Anne by James VI in 1594 (RMS vi no. 75 col. 4). And presumably for much of that time it was used for the purpose destined for it by Thomas Randolph.
Mountfleurie is now a suburb of Leven.
/məntˈflurɪ/ or /mɔntˈflurɪ/
This place-name appeared in printed volume 2