wegians, and had long ceased to be a seminary for the education of churchmen.* We think it improbable that Malcolm Caenmore created Macduff Earl of Fife. There is no evidence that this monarch introduced Gothic titles into his dominions. Our old historians are, upon the subject of titles, unworthy of credit, as they appear to have been extremely ill-informed regarding the state of Scotland in those early times. The Danish historians call the Scottish chiefs Jarls, long before this reign; which only implies, that the Scotch maormor had the same rank and power as the Danish Jarl, pronounced Yarl. Torfœus died 1720, and cannot be supposed to have known any thing of the matter. The charter of Malcolm to the monks of Dunfermline, published by Dugdale, in his Monasticon, from a communication by Sir James Balfour, and which is tested by three earls, has been shewn to be a forgery. No earls are found in charters, or in authentic history, before the reigns of Alexander I. and David I. who were the sons indeed of Malcolm, but the fourth and fifth sovereigns after him. Of anterior earls, Boece fables. Lord Hailes, Lord Kames, and the peerage writers, seem to be mistaken in supposing that earldoms were erected, and earls created, by Malcolm III. That the maormors assumed the title of Comes, or Earl, of their own accord, appears from the circumstance, that an ancient charter, creating a maormor a Comes, or Earl, has never been seen. David I. before he mounted the throne, calls himself Comes. In the Inquisitio Davidis, made in 1116, that is, eight years before his * Gaelic was spoken in the celebrated school of Aberdeen, in the time of Queen Mary.-VAUS's Rudimenta, Edin. 1566. CHALMERS'S Caled. vol. i. p. 478. accession, Matilda, Comitissa, his own consort, appears as witness, but no Comes. The practice of annexing the title to the name commenced in the reign of David I.; but the first Comes who annexed his title to his name was Gillebride, Comes de Anegus, in the reign of Malcolm IV.-Diplom. Scotia, pl. xxiv. The Countess of Fife, however, preceded this earl in the dignified innovation. Hela, Comitissa de Fife, was a witness to the charter of Ada, the wife of Earl Henry, the son of David, giving to the monastery a toft in Haddington. Ada was the mother of Malcolm IV. and William the Lion. As this charter was made during the life of Earl Henry, who died in 1152, Hela has the honour of being the first countess, or count, whose name has yet appeared, as a witness to any charter, with the name of the earldom annexed. Trans. Antiq. Soc. of Scot. vol. i. p. 118. The titles of Vice-Comes, or Viscount, and of Baron, seem to have been introduced at the same time with that of Comes, or Earl. The term Barony, as applied to lands, was not adopted for some time afterward. The Barony of Kilblathmont is first mentioned in 1219. -Chart. of Arbroath, 2. This term, however, was but rarely used even in the time of Alexander III. In addition to the Gaelic maormors, the only earls of new creation, during the Scoto-Saxon period of our history, seem to have been Gospatrick, Earl of Dunbar, by David I.; Duncan, Earl of Carrick, by William the Lion; and William, Earl of Sutherland, by Alexander II. Thus the peerages in North Britain did not commence till the twelfth century. It is generally believed that Macduff, maormor of Fife, was highly instrumental in placing Malcolm Caenmore upon the throne, but of this there is no direct evidence. "It seems certain, however," says Chalmers, "that, in very early times, the maormors, or earls of Fife, were entitled, 1. To place the king on the inaugural stone. 2. To lead the van of the king's army into battle. 3. To enjoy the privilege of sanctuary to the clan Macduff.”—Caled. vol. i. p. 417. That from very early times, the earls of Fife were entitled to place the king on the inaugural stone, is unquestionable. It appears, indeed, to have been considered a necessary part of the ceremony; for we see Isabella, the patriotic Countess of Buchan, a sister of the Earl of Fife, placing King Robert Bruce in the chair of state at his coronation; and the practice continued while the earldom of Fife remained in the possession of the descendants of Macduff, or 1371.—Reg. Rob. II. This earldom was annexed to the crown by James I. anno 1424. Of Macduff and his descendants having this honour conferred upon them by Malcolm Caenmore, for services rendered by Macduff, no satisfactory proof has been produced, yet it is not improbable that such was the case. Of the second honour said to have been conferred, namely, that of leading the van of the king's army into battle, we are far from being certain that the earls of Fife ever had it in their power to boast of such a privilege. They were either invested with no such right, or the earls of Fife were a most unwarlike race, as not one of them claimed this high distinction. As to the third, if clan Macduff had some particular privilege of sanctuary, its nature is not understood: there is not sufficient evidence of such being granted by Malcolm Caenmore. Sir Robert Sibbald, in his History of Fife, 1710, quotes in support of these supposed privileges of the earls of Fife, an epitome in his possession of the "Book of Pasly." This book, vulgarly called the "Black Book of Paisley," was chiefly a transcript of Fordun's Chronicle, made by the monks in the monastery of Paisley, and continued by them. The extract given by Sir Robert is to the same purport with what Winton says in his Chronicle, 1410; and we quote his words, as affording a good specimen of the language of the country in the beginning of the fifteenth century:— "First, fra his sete till the alter, To take his coronatioune ; For him and his posteritie When ere the kings suld crownit be." "Efter that the secund thing Was, that he askat at the king "Efter then the thrid asking". "Gif ony, be suddand chawdmelle, Hapnit sua to slane be" "Gif the sua slane war gentilman, Four and twenty merks than, For a zeman twelf merks pay, &c. &c." Winton goes on to shew, that an inquisition concerning the proofs of the kindred was to be made at " Cowper," before the privilege was allowed, and absolution given. This writer, no doubt, told the tradition of his day; but, unfortunately, these events belong to a period of our history 354 years preceding the date of his Chronicle; and, in the course of that time, the language, manners, and customs of the Lowlands of Scotland had undergone a complete change. Major, 1521, repeats the story, and blames Macduff for asking these privileges of Malcolm. "Thus," says Sir R. Sibbald, "he argues, in his disputatious way, without any solid argument. This privilege was that of an asylum, or girth, and the first we meet with in our records; and was, to Macduff's kindred, as the cities of refuge were to the Israelites, Joshua, chap. xx."-Hist. of Fife, p. 215. Boece, 1526, tells the same tale as Major; so does Buchanan, 1582; and the whole authority seems to be Winton's Chronicle, as there can be little dependence on the epitome of the Book of Paisley, itself a transcript from a credulous writer, whose works are interpolated, and who wrote 329 years after the accession of Malcolm III. and after the change above mentioned, in the institutions of the kingdom, had taken place. In the Regiam Majestatem,* we find the statutes of Alexander II. who died 1249: they are indeed, by many, suspected to be spurious. Among these statutes, there is one respecting the Earl of Fife, from which it would appear that he had some peculiar privilege. Chap. xv. "Of Amerciaments to be taken up fra them, quha passes nocht to the king's hoist." Paragraph 3. "Na earle, nor his servants, may enter in the lands of anie freehalders haldand of the *There is a juridical tract, first published by Sir John Skene, in 1609, called Regiam Majestatem, from the two first words. About this tract, there has been much discussion, by eminent lawyers and antiquaries, regarding its authenticity, as a book of Scotch law. Though we are not qualified to give an opinion, we incline to think with Chalmers and others, that the work was composed at Perth, about 1300: that it contains much anachronism and inconsistency: and is an authority not to be depended on, though it was considered a book of Scottish law, by the Parliament of 1469. |