Celtic Scotland : $b A history of ancient Alban. Volume 3 (of 3), Land and peopleSkene, W. F. (William Forbes)
History
Celtic Scotland : $b A history of ancient Alban. Volume 3 (of 3), Land and people
Skene, W. F. (William Forbes)
Celts -- Scotland; Civilization, Celtic; Scotland -- Antiquities, Celtic; Scotland -- History -- To 1603
The policy followed by King William, with regard to these earldoms, was
checked for a time by the unfortunate result of his attempt in 1174 to
recover possession of the northern provinces of England, when he was
taken prisoner, and only recovered his liberty by surrendering the
independence of his kingdom; but soon after his liberation, when he
returned to Scotland, he appears to have created two new earldoms, which
he bestowed upon his brother David. The first was the earldom of
Garvyach or Garrioch in Aberdeenshire, formed from the districts
surrounding the ancient fortification of Dunideer, and extending between
the river Don and its tributary the Ury. The second was the earldom of
Levenach or Lennox, and consisted of the northern part of the old
Cumbrian kingdom, which appears to have received a Gaelic population,
and is nearly represented by the county of Dumbarton.[82] These
districts were probably at the time in the hands of the Crown. The
earldom of Garvyach passed on David’s death to his son John the Scot,
after whose death it again reverted to the Crown, and was eventually
granted as a lordship to the earls of Mar. The earldom of Levenach does
not appear to have remained long in Earl David’s possession, as we find
it emerging in the possession of a line of Celtic earls, the first of
whom, Aluin, must have received it as early as the year 1193. Earl David
was invested with the English earldom of Huntingdon on the death of its
then possessor, Simon de Senlis, in 1184; and it is probable that on
that occasion he resigned the earldom of Lennox in favour of the head of
its Gaelic population.[83]
[Sidenote: Earldoms of Ross and Carrick.]
In 1179 William the Lion brought the people of Ross under more complete
subjection to the Crown, and built two royal castles within its bounds,
but he appears to have retained the earldom in his own hands, as the
Count of Holland complains that he had been deprived of it, although he
had never been forfeited. His grievance was probably not a very
substantial one, as it is very unlikely that he either had obtained or
could obtain practical possession of it. Seven years after the king
formed a second earldom out of the territory of the old Cumbrian
kingdom, at its southwestern extremity, where it bordered upon the
Gaelic district of Galloway, and appears to have received a Gaelic
population from thence. This was the district of Carrick, which he
bestowed as an earldom upon Duncan, son of Gilbert, and grandson of
Fergus, the Celtic Lord of Galloway.
[Sidenote: Earldom of Caithness.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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