We have seen that during the reign of Alexander the First and the early part of the reign of David, Ruadri or Rotheri, who had been Mormaer of Mar, appears witnessing the royal charters, with the personal title of Comes or Earl. He was followed, during the latter part of the reign of David and during that of his successor Malcolm IV., by Morgundus or Morgund, who also bears the personal title of Comes or Earl; but in the early part of the reign of William the Lion, when the territorial designations became more common, he is superseded by a certain Gilchrist, Earl of Mar, and Gilchrist, in his turn, makes way in 1171 for Morgund again. The explanation of this apparent contest for the position of earl is furnished us by the controversy which afterwards took place between the family of De Lundin, who were the kings hereditary _Hostiarii_ or doorkeepers, and from that office took the name of Doorward or Durward. It appears from this controversy that Morgund was alleged to be illegitimate, and King William had probably taken advantage of this flaw in his title to break the succession of the old Celtic earls by recognising Gilchrist, the next lawful heir, as earl. This Gilchrist had married Orabilis, the daughter of Ness, son of William, one of the foreign settlers in Fife, and his daughter was the mother of Thomas de Lundin, the king’s Hostiary or Doorward, and carried the claims of the lawful heirs into this family.[80] It is probable, however, that this illegitimacy, though possibly well founded according to the canon law, was not recognised as such by the Celtic customs, and an arrangement seems to have been come to by which Morgund agreed to receive from the king the investiture of the earldom as a feudal holding, while the claims of the rival party were satisfied by a large tract of land between the rivers Dee and Don, which was withdrawn from the earldom and became the property of the Durwards. There is preserved a deed by King William, in which he narrates that Morgund, son of Gillocher, formerly Earl of Mar, appeared before him in June 1171 and was invested with the earldom of Mar, in which his father had died vest and seized, and which was now granted to him and his heirs whatsoever.[81] It may perhaps be doubted whether this is an original deed; but there can be little doubt that it contains the record of a real transaction by which the earldom was converted into a purely feudal holding, which, like all such holdings created at this time, was descendible to heirs-female. [Sidenote: Earldoms of Garvyach and Levenach.]