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David II., in 1358, granted to Earl
Thomas a charter of confirmation of the Lordship of the Garioch to him and
his heirs. In 1356 Thomas, Earl of Mar, granted a charter to William
Chalmer of the lands of Easter Ruthven, in Cromar, for three yearly suits
at the earl’s head courts at Migvie. In 1359 he granted a charter to
William Leith, burgess of Aberdeen, of the lands of Rothney, Hareboggs,
and Blackeboggs, in the regality of the Garioch, and with common pasture
in the earl’s forest of Benachie. This charter was confirmed the same year
by David II. The same year he granted a charter to William Fentoun of the
lands of Upper Towie, Nether Towie, and Culquhork, in Strathdon.
In 1359 Earl Thomas was Chamberlain
of Scotland. But in 1361 there was a strife between him and David II., his
cousin. The King besieged the Castle of Kildrummy and took it; and
appointed Sir Walter Moigne temporary keeper of the castle. A Parliament,
which met at Perth in 1370, found that the Earl of Mar had contumaciously
absented himself.
The Earl married Margaret Stewart,
the eldest daughter of Thomas Stewart, Earl of Angus. Earl Thomas was
often in England and France. In March, 1359, he had a passport through
England for himself and thirty persons in his retinue, and three
merchants; while in August, 1359, he had a safe conduct for himself and
one hundred horsemen in his train. The same year, in October, he had a
passport to France with twenty-four horsemen. In November, 1362, he had a
safe conduct to the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket at Canterbury for
himself and twelve horsemen. He had passports for himself and twelve
horsemen in February, 1363, in March the same year, and in February, 1365.
In July, 1365, he had a licence to send eight horsemen to
Newcastle-on-Tyne with one hundred and twenty oxen, which he had sold to
merchants in that city. In October, 1368, he had a passport for himself
and twelve gentlemen on their way through England in pilgrimage to St
Amiens, in France. He was the last in the male line of the old Celtic
Earls of Mar, having died in 1377, leaving no issue.
His only sister, Margaret, who had
married William, first Earl of Douglas, then became Countess of Mar and
Garioch in her own right. She had a son and a daughter to her husband, who
died in 1384 He was succeeded by his son James, second Earl of Douglas,
and also twelfth Earl of Mar and Garioch in right of his mother. Earl
James, on the 27th of July, 1388, confirmed a grant of his father William,
to the monks of Melrose of the patronage of the parish church of Cavers.
Thirteen days later he fell, leading the Scots at the battle of Otterburn.
He having left no legitimate issue, his sister, Isabel, then succeeded to
the Earldom of Mar and the Lordship of the Garioch, her mother’s heritage,
and she also succeeded to the unentailed lands of the House of Douglas.
This Isabel, Countess of Mar and Garioch in her own
right, and also the owner of many other estates of wide extent, naturally
became the victim of many intrigues. In short, a network of plots was
woven around her. Margaret Stewart, Countess of Angus in her own right,
the widow of Thomas, late Earl of Mar, Isabel’s uncle, was an exceedingly
active agent in these plots. She was a woman of great energy, and quite
unscrupulous. In her youth she had a son to William, first Earl of
Douglas—her brother-in-law. This natural son, her only child—George
Douglas, was thus the Countess Isabel’s illegitimate brother. The Countess
of Angus (who, in virtue of her late husband, continued to take the style
of Countess of Mar), in her passion for the aggrandisement of her only
son, was ready to attempt anything. In
1389
she resigned the Earldom of Angus, with the Lordships
of Abernethy and Bonkill, in favour of her son, George Douglas, which was
confirmed by a charter of Robert II. Yet this lady was far from satisfied
with the position of her son, the Earl of Angus. She still continued to
make the utmost efforts to obtain settlements of the unentailed lands of
the House of Douglas in favour of her son. Above all, she concentrated her
longing eyes upon the wide territorial possessions of the Countess
Isabel—the Earldoms of Mar and Garioch. Of course, George Douglas, now
Earl of Angus, naturally seconded his mother’s plots.
Isabel, Countess of Mar and Garioch,
married Sir Malcolm Drummond, a brother of Annabella, Queen of Robert III.
But there was no issue of the marriage. It appears that Drummond acted in
concert with those who were interested in opposing and defeating. the
prospective claim of the Erskine family to the Earldom of Mar. Sir John
Swinton married Margaret, Countess of Mar, after the death of her first
husband, William, first Earl of Douglas ; and she, too, became involved in
the plots through the action of her second husband. On the 18th of March,
1391, Sir Thomas Erskine
appeared before the King in a Parliament sitting at Scone, and addressed
him thus:—"My Lord the King, it
has come to my knowledge that there is a certain contract made between Sir
Malcolm Drummond and Sir John Swinton upon the lands of the Earldom of Mar
and the Lordship of the Garioch, of which Earldom and Lordship Isabel, the
said Sir John Malcolm’s wife, is the real and lawful heir, and failing of
the heirs of her body, the half of the forementioned Earldom and Lordship
pertains to my wife of right and heritage. Therefore I require you, for
God’s sake, as my Lord and my King, as lawful attorney to my said wife,
that in case of any such contract to be made in prejudice of my said wife
of that which ought of right and of law to pertain to her in fee and
heritage, failing, the said Isabel, as is before said, that ye grant no
confirmation thereupon contrary to the common law of the country and of my
wife’s right." To this the King replied, "that he thought the request was
reasonable," and promised that he would do nothing to prejudice Sir
Thomas’s wife’s right or his own. Sir Thomas Erskine had a notary public
present, who formally executed an instrument recording the requisition and
the engagment.
Again, on the
22nd of November, 1395,
Robert III, declares in a letter to Sir Thomas Erskine
that he will not receive any resignation or alienation which Isabel
Douglas, Countess of Mar and Garioch, may wish to make of these Earldoms
in prejudice of the true heirs, namely— the heirs of the said Thomas
Erskine.
Two years later, the weak King,
Robert Ill., lent his aid to the great plotter, Margaret Stewart,
ex-Countess of Mar and Countess of Angus, mentioned before. At Edinburgh,
on the 24th of May, 1397, the King entered into an indenture with
"Margaret, Countess of Mar and Angus, undertaking that, in consideration
of George Douglas, her son, Lord of Angus, shall marry one of the King’s
daughters, then the King shall give him all the lands of the Earldom of
Angus in free regality, heritable to the said George and his daughter, and
to the longest liver of them and to their male heirs. And also our Lord
the King shall confirm, approve, and ratify under his great seal all
gifts, settings, and consignations made or to be made by Isabel, Countess
of Mar, to the said George, her brother, of all the lands, rents, and
possessions which she has, or may have, within the kingdom of Scotland;
and also our Lord the King shall receive all resignations that the said
Isabel likes to make, and with all haste he shall give charter and
heritable possession to the said George and his daughter. Also the King
truly promises not to receive any resignations made by the Countess Isabel
of any lands, rents, or possessions, nor give confirmation, but only to
the use and profit of the said George her brother," even although he has
given any letter to Sir Thomas Erskine. Such was the state of the question
of the Earldom of Mar and Garioch towards the close of the fourteenth
century. But startling surprises were not far off.
In 1390, Robert III. granted to his
brother-in-law, Sir Malcolm Drummond, Lord of Mar in right of his wife,
the Countess Isabel, a licence to erect a tower on the lands of Castletown
of Braemar. The King, in 1393, granted to Sir Malcolm by charter, forty
pounds sterling per annum from the great custom of Aberdeen, until the
King shall give him forty pounds worth of lands.
When Sir Malcolm was residing in his
own castle in 1402, he was attacked by a band of ruffians, instigated by
Alexander Stewart (the hero of Harlaw), overpowered, and thrown into a
dungeon, where the cruel treatment he received ended in his death. Tytler,
the historian, says—. "There seems to have been little doubt that the
successful wooer and the assassin of Drummond was one and the same
person."
After the murder of her husband,
Isabel was residing at the castle of Kildrummy, the chief seat of the
Earldom of Mar, a widow, childless, and quite unprotected. In the summer
of 1404, Alexander Stewart, a leader of broken men and the terror of the
country, swooped down upon the castle and his victim. He captured the
Countess’s castle, and seized her person, and then extorted from her under
a covenant of future marriage a charter, dated the 12th of August, 1404,
by which she gifted to Alexander Stewart the Earldoms of Mar and Garioch,
and all the other lands and superiorities belonging to her by hereditary
right. The immediate effect of this charter was to cut off the Erskines,
and others who had hopes of succeeding to the Earldom of Mat
This daring outrage upon the
Countess’s person and property and extortion of the charter were too
flagrant to stand altogether unredressed. But Stewart’s relation to the
Royal Family, being a natural son of the late Alexander Stewart, Earl of
Buchan, the "Wolf of Badenoch," and the power of his uncle, the Duke of
Albany, appears to have saved him from any actual punishment. Accordingly
a compromise was arranged, by which the interests of other parties were
secured. The matter assumed a dramatic form.
On the 9th of September, 1404, the
Countess, accompanied by Alexander, Bishop of Ross; Sir Andrew Leslie,
Walter Ogilvie, and other gentlemen of the district, and a multitude of
the people, proceeded to a meadow outside the great gate of Kildrummy
Castle. And then Alexander Stewart came out of the castle, advancing to
where the countess stood, and in the presence of the assemblage delivered
over to her the castle with its charters, the silver vessels, and other
jewels, and everything therein, placing the keys in her hands, to dispose
of the castle as no longer under any constraint. This having been done,
the Countess, holding the keys in her hands, then made choice of Alexander
Stewart as her husband before all the people; and gave him in free
marriage the Castle and the Earldoms of Mar and Garioch, and all the lands
which she possessed. Immediately after this interesting ceremony the
charter of the 12th of August was renounced by Alexander Stewart in favour
of the Countess, to be reconveyed by her to him, which was done by a
similar charter of the 9th of December; but with reservation to the
longest liver, and ultimate destination in case of there being no issue
from the marriage, to Isabel’s heirs. This was confirmed by a charter of
Robert III. on the 21st of January, 1405, under the Great Seal. Thus
Alexander Stewart became Earl of Mar.
The Countess Isabel, the unhappy
victim of many intrigues, and such violence as indicated above, died about
three years after her marriage, and left no issue by Alexander Stewart.
But he continued to hold the Earldom, and endeavoured to secure the
succession to his natural son, Thomas Stewart.
The new Earl of Mar lived in grand
style, and often travelled abroad. On the 3rd of September, 1406, John
Stele and William Stewinson, chaplains of the Earl of Mar, had a safe
conduct till Easter to pass to and from Bruges, in connection with Mar’s
affairs. In April, 1406, Henry IV. granted letters of safe conduct to
Alexander, Earl of Mar, and Lord of the Garioch, with forty persons in his
train, to go into England to a passage-of-arms with Edmund, Earl of Kent,
in the presence of the King. The same year, on the 5th of September, he
had another safe conduct for himself and seventy persons for a
passage-of-arms with the Earl of Kent He had also adventures in France.
On the 24th of December, 1409,
Alexander, Earl of Mar and Garioch, granted a charter to Alexander Forbes
of Brux, conveying to him the lands of Glencoure and the Orde, in the
lordship of Strathdon, for one penny yearly at the south door of the
Church of Invernochty. In 1410 the Earl granted a charter to Sir Alexander
Irvine of Drum of the lands of Davachindore and Fidlemouth, in the Earldom
of Mar, for one penny yearly at the south door of the Parish Church.
It appears that Sir Alexander Irvine
was one of the Scottish knights who took part in the exploits of the Earl
of Mar at the siege and conflicts of Liege in 1408. On this occasion the
cause for which Mar fought was to place a worthless man in a bishop’s see
against the majority of the people. |
