[citation needed] Granting William the Mormaerdom of Moray may have had the dual purpose of compensating a relative for excluding him from succession as well as placing one of David's most loyal and worthy agents over a fragile and recently acquired territory, which he was very keen on keeping.
This would be not unlike his motives with the marriage of the Earl of Atholl, Maddad into the Orkney and Caithness dynasty to promote stability and good relations between his and that kingdom, with the objective to reduce threats to his newly acquired Moray province.
[4] It has historically been presumed that had a large number of bastards, including Wimund of the Isles, who was recorded to be the son of the earl of Moray[6] and for which there is strong circumstantial evidence to support as being William's illegitimate child.
[citation needed] Such a Moravian origin would explain the strong support the otherwise bastard Meic Uilleims enjoyed in Moray and Ross, as well as the Gaelic stylization of their surname.
It may be that David realized the threat posed by the Meic Uilliems for having claims to kingship through both their mother and father's side (great-grandson of Lulach, grandson of Duncan II, respectively), motivating the absolute extermination of their line to remove dynastic rivals.