ANGUS COMPLETE PEERAGE 145 place in the presence of the seven Earls, but 30 years later they " were gradually losing their separate corporate existence, and were no longer able to maintain in this reign the functions they exercised in previous reigns, for when the succession to the throne was settled upon the da. of Alexander in 1284, we find them merged in the general Communitas, in which the entire body of the Earls, now amounting to thirteen, appear. " (") In 1297, however, the seven Earls, being, at that time, Buchan, Menteith, Stratherne, Lennox, Ross, Athole, and Mar, (in company with John Comyn of Badenoch), made a disastrous invasion of England ; but " after this, we hear no more of the seven Earls of Scotland. " (") EARLDOM [S.] 1. " Dufugan, Comes, " who appears among the L 1 1 1 5 .' seven Earls in the charter of 1 1 1 4 or 1 1 1 5, (see remarks above) in all probability was Mormaer of Angus, though in this charter (possibly for the first time) styled " Comes, " i.e. EARL OF ANGUS [S.]. He was probably a descendant of Dubucan, Mormaer of Angus in the loth century. (") 11. 1 135 ? 2. Gillbride,('=) Earl of Angus [S.], was at the battle of the Standard, 22 Aug. 1138, when the Scots were totally defeated at Northallerton, co. York, and was (long afterwards) one of the hostages for King William the Lion [S.] in 1 1 74. He seems to have m., istly, a da. of Gospatrick, Earl of Dunbar [S.]. He ?»., sub- sequently, the h. of the Earls of Caithness [S.], who was mother, by him, of Magnus, Earl of Caithness [S.] in 1232. (") He d. about 1187. in. II 87.' 3. Adam (') Earl of Angus, s. and h., witnessed a charter, v.p., in 11 64, as " son of Earl Gillbride. " He is named in a charter, about 1 187, as Earl of Angus. He d. before 11 98. C) Skene's Celtic Satland. () It is stated on the contemporary evidence of the " Pictish Chronicle " (a work of the loth century) that Dubucan, s. of Indrechtaig, was Mormaer of Angus, and d. about 935, being sue. by his s. Maelbrigdi. After him (according to the later chronicles), one Conchar was Mormaer of Angus. He was father of Fynebole, Lady of Fettercairn, by whom King Kenneth McMalcom was treacherously slain, in 995, in revenge for the slaughter of her only son at Dunsinane. See Chroniclfs of the Ticts and Scots, edited by W.F. Skene, pp. 9, 175, 289. The resemblance of the name of Dufiagan to that of Dubucan " leads to the supposition that he may have filled that [/".<. the same] position, i?c. " See Skene's Celtic Scotland, vol. iii, p. 60. f") " During the whole reign of David I (1124-53) these Earls _i.e. the seven Earls of the seven Provinces of transmarine Scotland], appear simply with the desig- nation of Comes, without any territorial addition, with two exceptions which occur towards the end of his reign. In the last year of David's reign, the Earl who sue. Gillemichel appears as Dunchad, Comes de Fif, and, along with him, for the first time appears Gillebride, Comes de Angus. " (Skene's Celtic Scotland, vol. iii, p. 63.) Thus the two Earldoms of Fife and of Angus appear to have been already territorialised. C) See Skene's Celtic Scotland, vol. iii, p. 450. (') The credit for first calling attention to the existence 01 this obscure Earl belongs to Sir William Fraser. See Douglas Book, vol. ii, pp. 2, 3. V.G. 20