Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 5.djvu/231

MAR. 229 22 April M38, ho was returned licir in half of the lauds of Mar, &e., and by another such service. 16 Oct. following, in the other half. Seisin) 1 ") thereof was given on 21 Nov. 1488, which completed the legality of his possession of the said dignity and fief. Various agreements between him and the Crown, as to the surrender of castles, &c, were entered into, and a final adjustment of the Crown's rights was postponed by the Council till King James II. [S.j, attained his full age, but nothing was finally settled till 1457, six years after that period^) and five after the Earls death. He appears to have hi., soon after Dec. UOO.C'la da. of David (Lindsay), 1st Earl OP Crawford [S.] He d. between 26 Aug. 1 152, and 21 March 1452/3. [The Earldom of Mar " the succession and inheritance to which was during the interval between the death (1407) of the Countess Isabella and the year 1565 "treated by successive Kings of Scotland as if the same had been by some means extinguished "(°) was, on the death of Earl Alexander in 1435, claimed by King James I. [S.j by reason of the bastardy of the last possessor, who was thus held (under the renounced and nnneimfirined charter of August 1401) to have been the absolute owner thereof and, as such, entitled to resign it and obtain the regrant of 1426. The King accordingly in 1135 seems to have possessed himself of some or possibly the greater part of the lands thereof, but shortly afterwards, 2U Feb. 1437, was murdered, when (in the following year) 143S, the heir of line (under the conjoined charter of Dec. 1404) Robert, Lord Krskine, was enfeoffed thereof, as abovestated. His s. and h., Thomas, Lord Krskine, was, however, unable to obtain such enfeoffment on his father's death in 1 152, and, five years later, the King, James II. [S.], obtained at a Justiciary Court at Aberdeen, 15 May 1457, a (posthumous) reduction of the retour in 1438 in right of Robert, Lord Erskine, and a statement that the Earldom had devolved on the late King in 1435, on the grounds abovenamed. James II. [S.] d. but three years later 3 Aug. 1460, tho'not befoie he had dealt with the Earldom as under.] XIV. 1458? 1. The Lord Jonx Stewart, 3d and yst. s. of the. to reigning King James II. [3.], by Mary, da. of Arnold, Ddkk 1179. OF Guei.dhes. was b. (after Oct. 1456) about 1457 and was cr. between 21 June 1458, and 23 June 1459, EARL OK MAR AND GARIOCH [S.] He signs as " J/ionne Erllol' Mur and Gcrwi/acht" two deeds IS Nov. 1475, and 1 March 1177/8.(0 He d. iram. in 1479 at Canongate, Edinburgh, where he was apparently murdered by the orders of his br., the then King James III. [S.] whom he had Offended, His honours became extinct at his death. Robert Cochrane (whose parentage is unknown) an Architect, one of the King's " favourites" (as early as 1176) took a great part in fomenting the King's displeasure against his brothers ami was, on the murder of the yst. thereof (as above mentioned) rewarded with his estate, being said to have been cr. EARL (") See p. 223, note "c." ( b ) " To the uther half of the said Earldome of Mar and Lordschipe of Oarrioche." See the schedule of these deeds in 1626 which were at that date (but are not now) in existence. [" A " vol. i, pp. 264—265), as in note " b," p. 21S.] (•) The King had meanwhile, by charter 26 Aug, 1452, made a grant as to the " terras Comitatus nos/ri dc Gurioch " to Mary, the Queen Consort, for her life. (d) See " Lives of the Lindsai/s" (edit. 1849), vol. i, p. 105, note (°) " Earldom of Mar Restitution Bill," 1885. (f) Between these dates, vh. on 26 April 1476, the unconfirmed and superseded charter of 12 Aug. 1404 (which according to the decreet of 1626 was the sole founda- tion of the King's " pretendit" right of possession of the Earldom) was [more than scccnli/ years after its date] inscribed on the Great Seal Register by special mandate of the King "irregularly and illegally introduced, no confirmation of the charter having passed the Great Seal, and no private charter, such as this of the 12th Aug., much less an unconfirmed charter having a right to insertion thereon." [" A," (vol. i, p. 299) as in note "b," p. 218.]