to be fair, as he was by then well on his way to fathering his total of around 40 illegitimate children by a large number of different women, he was probably right). In 1389 Alexander sought the intervention of the Bishop of Moray, Bishop Alexander Bur, to bring his marriage to an end. The Bishop came down on the side of Eupheme, and when Alexander then expelled her to make way for his mistress of the moment, Mariota Athyn, he was excommunicated by the Bishop of Moray.

It was Alexander's response to his excommunication that resulted in his label as the Wolf of Badenoch. First, the monk who came to Lochindorb castle with the news of Alexander's excommunication was consigned to the castle's bottle pit. Many Scottish castles hadthese deeply unpleasant dungeons accessible only by a trap door in the roof. Not many could also boast three feet of water covering the floor because of their island location.

Then, in May 1390, Alexander descended on Moray at the head of a large number of "wild, wykked Hieland-men." Alexander sacked the town of Forres, before heading east, destroying Pluscarden Abbey en route to Elgin where he arrived in 17 June 1390. Here he burned much of the town and destroyed Elgin Cathedral, the second largest cathedral in Scotland, widely known as the Lantern of the North.

Alexander's older brother, Robert III, who had only just succeeded to the throne and had yet to be crowned, called upon him to do penance for his crimes and pay significant reparations: then