The title prefixed to the translation of this document by Dean Gule, made for William Sinclair of Roslin, in 1554, calls it:—“A Diploma or Deduction concerning the Genealogies of the ancient Earls of Orkney, drawn up from the most authentic records, by Thomas, Bishop of Orkney, with the assistance of his clergy and others, in consequence of an order from King Eirik of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, to investigate the rights of William Sinclair to the earldom.” But in the document itself King Eirik is spoken of as “our former lord of illustrious memory,” and the date is evidently erroneous. It is probably to be assigned to about 1443. It was first printed by Wallace in 1699, and subsequently by Jonæus in the appendix to the Orkneyinga Saga in 1780; by Barry in his History of the Orkneys in 1805; in the Bannatyne Miscellany, 1848; and by Munch in his Symbolæ, Christiania, 1850. Footnote 50: Among the documents found in the King’s Treasury at Edinburgh in 1282, were the letters addressed by the King of Norway (presumably Hakon) to the inhabitants of Caithness. The inhabitants of Caithness seem to have been also obliged by the Scottish King to give hostages for their fealty to him. In the accounts of Laurence Grant, Sheriff of Inverness, for the year 1263, there is a charge of £15:6:3 for the expenses of twenty-one hostages from Caithness, at the rate of one denarius (penny) for each per day for twenty-five weeks, “and then they were set at liberty.” (Compota Camerarium Scotiæ, i. p. 31.) Footnote 51: Acta Parl. Scot., vol. i. p. 82. Footnote 52: Iceland Annals, _sub anno_. Footnote 53: The Scala Cronica says off the coast of Buchan. “One Master Weland, a clerke of Scotlande, sent yn to Norway for Margaret, dyed with her by tempeste on the se cumming oute of Norway to Scotland yn costes of Boghan.” (Scala Cronica, Mait. Club, pp. 110, 282.) Wyntoun says she was “put to dede by martyry,” and assigns as the reason that the Norwegians would not have one who was of another nation and a female to be heir to the throne of Norway, though their laws allowed it. He had probably heard the story of the “false Margaret.” (See p. lii.) Footnote 54: