although it is possible that the people of galloway regarded alan's illegitimate son as their rightful lord, the "chronicle of melrose" states that they appealed to alexander to take the whole lordship into his own hands, suggesting that whilst the gallovidians were willing to accept that illegitimacy indeed excluded alan's son from the inheritance, they were unwilling to accept female succession. whatever the case, alexander denied the gallovidian's their request, quickly crushed their subsequent retaliatory uprising, and went ahead with the tripartite partitioning. one of the scots who played a key part in the king's destruction of the gallovidian resistance was ferchar mac in tsagairt, earl of ross, a rising star in alexander's administration, who happened to be amlaíb dub's father-in-law.