144 COMPLETE PEERAGE angus feudal holdings, were territorial exactly as far as the newer were, and no further. All the Scottish Earldoms had become feudalized before the end of the thirteenth century. ... In the case of some of them . . . even at an early period, the lands became so sub-divided, that little remained of them but the chief messuage. " (*) In the early part of the reign (ii 53-1 165) of Malcolm IV, the seven Earls of Scotland consisted of Angus, Athole, Fife, Mar, Stratherne and BucHAN, together with Dunbar from the Lothians. Of the two last named, Buchan, before 11 14, had become separated from Mar, and had apparently taken the place of Caithness ; while Dunbar appears to have taken the place of Moray, which was the first of the Celtic Earldoms to break up (by the defeat and death of Angus, bearing the title of Earl of Moray), in the beginning of the previous reign [1124-53] of David I. Malcolm IV (1153-65) added two new Earldoms, wz., Ross and Menteith ; and continued the policy, inaugurated by David I, " for trans- forming the old Celtic Kingdom of the Scots into a feudal monarchy. " (") His successor, William the Lion (i 165-12 14), added four new Earldoms, w'z., Garioch, Lennox, Carrick, and Caithness. During the reign of Alexander II (1214-49) "We find the seven Earls of Scotland frequently making their appearance, apparently as a constitutional body, whose privileges were recognised. They first appear at the King's Coronation, and then consisted of the Earls of Fife, Strath- erne, Athole, Angus, Menteith, Buchan and Lothian i.e. Dunbar]. With the exception of Menteith, which was a more recent Earldom,- these are the same Earldoms whose Earls gave their consent to the foundation charter of Scone, but Menteith now comes in the place of Mar, perhaps owing to the controversy as to the rightful possessor of the latter Earldom, and Buchan was now held by a Norman Baron. " (") The seven Earls again appear in 1237, in the agreement of that date with England. They were, at that time, Dunbar, Stratherne, Angus, Athole, (with) Lennox, Mar and Ross, these last three being in place of Fife, Menteith and Buchan. Again the seven Earls appear, when the agreement was renewed in 1 244, and, this time, Fife, Menteith and Buchan re-appear among them, while Angus (which had in 1243 passed to a Norman race), Lennox and Ross were omitted. Thus we see that, " though the number of seven was always retained, the constituent members were not always the same. " (") It would almost seem from the addition and subtraction of Lennox and Ross, in 1237 and 1244 respectively, that junior Earldoms were added to make up the number to seven, when, from any cause, the senior Earldoms were not available. In 1 25 1, the 2nd year of Alexander III, a solemn ceremony took (') See p. 590 of an able article, reviewing Hewlett's Dignities in the Teerage of Scotland, in The Journal of Jurisprudence, or Scottish Law Maga-z.ine, (vol. xxvi, pp. 575-591, Nov. 1882) wherein Hewlett's holding that the most ancient Earl- doms [S.] were "in an especial sense territorial,'" is confuted: the Reviewer very conclusively demonstrating that " exactly the reverse is the case. " C) Skene's Celtic Scotland.
