He succeeded as only a child, the son of the previous Mormaer Colbán, who died young.
Perhaps owing to a power-struggle within the Mormaerdom, the Bishop confiscated some lands from the MacDuib chief, head of Fife's Gaelic society.
He had in 1284 joined with other Scottish noblemen who acknowledged Margaret of Norway as the heir of Alexander III.
He was murdered in his prime at Pittillock near Falkland, Fife, while on his way to Dunfermline, the seat of Scottish government at that time, by some of his kinsmen in September.
The Chronicle of Lanercost called the mormaer "cruel and greedy beyond the average" (Barrow, Robert Bruce, p. 332, note 33).