John Horace Round

“ After her death in 1408 the earl played a great part, commanding the royal forces at the battle of Harlaw, when the Lord of the Isles was defeated in 1411, and afterwards acting as warden of the Marches. In 1426 he resigned the earldom to the Crown, the king granting it by a fresh creation to him and certain heirs, with reversion to the Crown. On the earl’s death in 1435 the earldom was claimed by Robert, Lord Erskine, as heir of Gratney, earl of Mar, through a daughter; but the Crown claimed as reversionary under the creation of 1426. ”

“ By “an equivocation on the facts of the case,” it was recited that “doubts may exist whether the said ancient honour, dignity, and title of peerage of earl of Mar ... was or was not ... by any lawful means surrendered or merged in the Crown” before 1565, and that the House of Lords had decided that Queen Mary’s known charter of 1565 applied only to lands and “did not operate or extend to restore” the peerage dignity, and enacted that “John Francis Erskine Goodeve Erskine” (which last name the claimant had added) should be “restored to” the ancient earldom. ”

“ Earl Gratney (fl. c. 1300) married a sister of (King) Robert Bruce, who brought him the lordship of Garioch and castle of Kildrummy, which she held against the earl of Athole, an ally of the English (1335) . ”