This would involve a long minority for Johanna, and by reason of her marriage with Freskin de Moravia in 1245 or later, we suspect that Freskin's uncle, William dominus Sutherlandiae, whose territories were bounded on the north and east by her lands, was her guardian, an office whose duties the head of the powerful and loyal House of Sutherland alone could efficiently perform in the troublous and turbulent times of her minority.
From Bain's Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland[25] we know that Freskin was one of the signatories of the National Bond of mutual alliance and friendship with Sir Llewelin son of Griffin, Prince of Wales, and other leading Welshmen on the 18th of March 1259. Freskin would not have been asked to sign a document of such international importance unless, like another of its signatories, Sir Reginald Chen I (whose son of the same name, Reginald Chen II, married Freskin's daughter, Mary of Duffus, later on) he had been one of the leading men of his time in Scotland. We also find that his rights were saved in a charter of 11th April 1260 and that on 13th October 1260 he was one of the three vice-gerents of Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan, Justiciar of Scotland, present in Court at Perth on that date.[26]
On the 16th March 1262-3 from a grant of two chaplains[27] for the weal of the soul of the deceased Freskin of Moray, Lord of Duffus, we know that he had died before that date, that is, probably before his fortieth year. Freskin, then, died after 13th October 1260 and before 16th March 1262-3, and was buried in the chapel of St. Lawrence in the Church of Duffus, which he had founded and endowed with lands at Dawey in Strath Spey, and Duffus. His wife Johanna ("quondam sponsa" "quondam Friskyni de Moravia") was certainly dead in May 1269 (Reg. Morav., ch. 126, p. 139).
They left no male heir, but they left two daughters, Mary and Christian, both minors at their father's death and probably too young to have been married in August 1263, when, as we shall find, their lands and their half share of the Caithness earldom sadly needed defenders from Norse invaders.
Owing to subsequent additions of territory, it is impossible at the present time to say exactly what all the lands owned by an independent title by Lady Johanna of Strathnaver were, but some guidance towards the further identification of her lands in Caithness is found in the fact that later charters give the names of the lands which her sequel in all her estate, Reginald Chen III, known as "Lord Schein" or "Morar na Shein" held,[28] and that he lived in and hunted from a castle at the exit of the river Thurso from Loch More above Dirlot or Dilred in Strathmore in Halkirk parish, but never owned Brawl, a capital residence of the Caithness earls, but did own to the end of his life "half Caithness," and acquired South Caithness after 1340 by purchase. Adding to this the facts, indications, and probabilities alluded to in this and preceding chapters as to the position of lands in Caithness variously owned, we are able to venture to come to a general conclusion as to the devolution of the Caithness earldom and lands.
This conclusion is, that what may be termed the shares of the respective lines of Paul and Erlend, the sons of Earl Thorfinn and others, in the Caithness earldom lands probably went respectively between 1231 and 1239 and afterwards in the following manner.
The right to succeed to the share of Paul passed, on his descendant Earl John's death in 1231, to Earl John's only child then alive, the nameless hostage daughter, who, according to our theory, had after 1st August 1214 married Magnus, son of Earl Gilchrist of Angus by his second marriage with either Ingibiorg or Elin, both sisters of Harald Ungi, and both older than Ragnhild. But the title of Earl of Caithness and the enjoyment of the whole earldom was on Earl John's death temporarily conferred, in addition to his title of Earl of Angus, on Malcolm, Earl of Angus, and nephew of Magnus the husband of John's hostage daughter, as being the head of the Angus family and one of the most powerful earls in Scotland, pending a general settlement of the affairs of Sutherland and Caithness; and Malcolm held his own Earldom of Angus, and, in addition, for the Crown, as Custos, trustee, or administrator pendente lite, held Caithness after 22nd April 1231 and certainly at 7th October 1232, possibly till 3rd July 1236, when the following settlement was made.
Caithness, without Sutherland, was with the title of Earl of Caithness, North and South, confirmed to Earl Magnus II by two grants, the one of North Caithness in right of his wife and the other of South Caithness in right of his mother. The estate of Sutherland was after 10th October 1237 erected into an earldom in the person of William, who was the eldest son of Hugo Freskyn, and was then owner of the estate, this earldom being, as stated in the Diploma of the Orkney Earls, "taken away from Magnus II" in his lifetime, possibly out of South Caithness, by Alexander II.
On Magnus' death in 1239, Gillebryd or Gillebride, called in the Icelandic Annals Gibbon, who was either a son or younger brother of Magnus, succeeded Magnus II in the Orkney and Caithness titles and in the Paul share of the Caithness earldom, and it appears from a grant of the advowson of Cortachy on 12th December 1257 that Matilda daughter of Gillebert, "then late Earl of Orkney," married Malise Earl of Stratherne. On Gillebride's death in 1256, his son Magnus III succeeded to Orkney and to the share of Paul in the Caithness earldom, as held by Earl Magnus II and Earl Gillebride his successor, that is without the Sutherland earldom, and without Freskin and Johanna's share of Caithness.
The right to succeed to the other share of Caithness, that of Erlend Thorfinnson, which, according to The Flatey Book had belonged to Jarl Ragnvald, and had been conferred on Harald Ungi by William the Lion in 1197, passed through Ragnhild, another and the youngest sister of Harald Ungi, and then through a child of hers, possibly Snaekoll Gunni's son, the only known male representative of this line at the time, or through Snaekoll's younger brother or sister, along with the Moddan estates in Strathnaver and in various highland and Celtic parishes in Caithness, to Johanna of Strathnaver as Ragnhild's heir; but this share did not carry with it the title of Countess. It was held for her in wardship, but it was not formally granted and confirmed by the Crown to her or her husband Freskin de Moravia, who had become Lord of Duffus by 1248, until their marriage, in or after 1245, or even later, and when the settlement was made, possibly South Caithness was taken partly out of it.