In the Wardrobe Rolls of King Edward I. (1290) the following payments
occur:—“Sept. 1.—To Lord Eli de Hamville going by the king’s orders
with the Lord Bishop of Durham towards Scotland to meet the messengers
of the King of Norway and the princess, and was to return with the
news to the king. To John Tyndale, the messenger from the Bishop of
St. Andrews, who brought letters from his master to the king
concerning the rumours of the arrival of the Princess of Scotland in
Orkney—by gift of the king, xxsh. To William Playfair, messenger of
the Earl of Orkney, who brought letters to our Lord the King, on the
part of Lord John Comyn, concerning the reported arrival of the
Scottish Princess in Orkney—by gift of the king, xiiish. 4d.” There is
also a detailed account of the expenses of two messengers who left
Newcastle on the 15th September, were at Haberdene on the 23d, at the
Meikle Ferry in Sutherland on the 30th, where they met the messengers
from Scotland, then proceeded by Helmsdale and Spittal to Wick, which
they reached on the 4th October. They left Wick on the 6th October,
and arrived at Norham on the 21st November. On the 13th May of the
following year (1291) Earl John of Orkney had a safe conduct to come
to King Edward till the 24th June, when the earl would doubtless
communicate to the king all that he knew of the princess’s death.
Footnote 55:
This letter was dated 1st February 1320, and the substance of it is
given by Suhm, vol. xii. p. 29. It does not seem to be known from the
original document however, but from a later “paraphrase,” as Munch
calls it, preserved in the Royal Library at Stockholm. (Det Norske
Folks Historie, vol. iv. part 2, p. 348.)
Footnote 56:
Under the date 1293 the following entry occurs in the Chronicle of
Lanercost:—“Dominica etiam post festum Sancti Martini (Nov. 15)
desponsata est filia Roberti de Carrick regi Norwagiae Magno.” (Chron.
de Lanercost, p. 155.) Magnus is plainly a mistake for Eirik, the son
of Magnus, who reigned from 1280 to 1299.
Footnote 57:
Rymer’s Fœdera, Syllabus I. p. 114.
Footnote 58:
Det Norske Folks Historie, vol. iv. part 2, p. 202.
Footnote 59:
Munch, Det Norske Folks Historie, vol. iv. part 2, pp. 195, 344.
Footnote 60:
Haflidi Steinson died nearly nineteen years after this as priest of
Breidabolstad in Iceland. The Iceland Annals, recording his death in
1319, recount the story as if this were the real Margaret (whose death
they record in 1290), and add that “to this Haflidi himself bore
witness when he heard that this same Margaret had been burnt at
Nordness.” (See Wyntoun’s Statement, p. 1, note 1.)
Footnote 61:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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