[458] The lands of Dingwall and Ferncrosky in Sutherland were granted in 1308 to the earl of Ross. Act Parl. Scot., vol. 1, p. 117.
[459] Torf. Orc., l. 1, c. 19. Antiq. Celt.-Scand., p. 250, 254.
[460] Torf. Orc., l. 1, c. 20, 21. She must have been an ancient lady, for Ronald the Second died before Thorfin!
[461] Torf. Orc., l. 1, c. 21, 22, 24, 25. Antiq. Celt.-Scand., p. 254–55.
[462] Torf. Orc., l. 1, c. 21, 22, 24, 25. A mark for every plough-gang is said to have been the amount of the contribution.
[463] Antiq. Celt.-Scand., p. 256–57.
[464] He is called Bishop John. The only Bishop John at that time was the Bishop of Glasgow.
[465] So, in 1308, during the minority of the Earls of Fife, Menteith, Mar, Buchan, and Caithness, the “Communitates Comitatum” represented the earldoms. Act. Parl. Scot., vol. 1, p. 99. In fact, in a certain state of society, when the power of the crown, though acknowledged, was comparatively feeble, the community had still practically a voice in the appointment of their Senior, and the heir could not hold his ground without, on the one hand, their consent, and on the other, the confirmation, of the crown. Such was the case at this period in the north and west of Scotland; and a similar state of affairs is more or less traceable in Saxon Northumbria, and apparently in the Danelage, before the Conquest.
[466] Antiq. Celt.-Scand., 257–89. The dates of these occurrences are easily ascertained. Harald Mac Madach died in 1206 (Chron. Mel.) For twenty years he ruled the Orkneys in conjunction with Ronald, whom he survived for forty-eight years. He was five years of age when he received the title of earl; and as he reached the Orkneys in the year after the expedition of Bishop John, Ronald must have held the earldom at that time for three years. (Vide Flatey Book in Col. de Reb. Alb., p. 354.) Harald was therefore born in 1133, and succeeded to his share in the earldom in 1138. Ronald must have ruled from 1135 to 1158.
[467] Heimsk. Saga xiv. c. 17. Antiq. Celt.-Scand., p. 264–65.