Balfour, Oppressions of Orkney (Maitland Club), p. xxvi. Such was not the opinion of Father Hay, the panegyrist of the St. Clairs of Roslyn. He says that “Henry, prince of Orknay, was more honoured than any of his ancestres, for he had power to cause stamp coine within his dominions, to make laws, to remitt crimes;—he had his sword of honour carried before him wheresoever he went; he had a crowne in his armes, bore a crowne on his head when he constituted laws; and, in a word, was subject to none, save only he held his lands of the King of Danemark, Sweden, and Noraway, and entred with them, to whom also it did belong to crowne any of those three kings, so that in all those parts he was esteemed a second person to the king.” (Genealogie of the St. Clairs, p. 17.) Father Hay’s romances receive no countenance whatever from the deed of investiture. Footnote 91: About £333 sterling. Footnote 92: Father Hay states (Genealogie of the St. Clairs, p. 17) that Henry St. Clair “married Elisabeth Sparres, daughter of Malesius Sparres, Prince of Orkney, Earl of Caithness and Stratherne, through which marriage he became Prince of Orkney.” But Malise Sperra never had any connection with the earldoms of Caithness or Stratherne. In another place, p. 33, he says that Sir William Sinclair (who fell fighting with the Saracens in Spain in 1330) “was married to Elizabeth Sparre, daughter to the Earle of Orkney, and so by her became the first Earl of Orkney of the Saintclairs. His name was Julius Sparre. He is also reputed Earl of Stratherne and Caithness.” But this is manifestly a tissue of impossibilities. He seems to have copied the last statement from the Drummond MS. (1681), where the additional statement is made that Elizabeth’s mother was Lucia, daughter of the Earl of Ross. (Genealogie of the House of Drummond: Edinburgh, 1831, p. 237.) Both writers seem to have confounded Malise, Earl of Stratherne, with his daughter’s son, Malise Sperra. Footnote 93: Iceland Annals, _sub anno_. Munch, Det Norske Folks Historie, 2d series, vol. ii. p. 106. Footnote 94: He seems to have held lands in Banffshire. In the Chamberlain Rolls, 1438, there is an entry of a receipt of £9 from James M’fersane for the land formerly belonging to Malis Speir, knight in the Sheriffdom of Banff, remaining in the king’s hands. (Diplom. Norvegicum, i. 366.) Footnote 95: The Iceland Annals, under the date 1389, have the following entry:—“Malise Sperra slain in Hjaltland, with seven others, by the Earl of Orkney. He had previously been taken captive by him. From that conflict there escaped a man-servant who with six men in a six-oared boat got away safely to Norway.” Footnote 96: Diplom. Norvegicum, ii. 401. Regist. Mag. Sigill. 196. Footnote 97: