Earl of Ross

“ VI. EUPHEMIA O'BEOLAN, COUNTESS OF ROSS in her own right. She married first, by dispensation, dated 1367, Sir Walter Leslie, son of Sir Andrew Leslie, who in right of his wife became Earl of Ross. They have a charter of the earldom of Ross and of the lands of Skye dated 1370, two years before Earl William's death, in their own favour and that of their heirs male and female in reversion. Her first husband predeceased her in 1382, whereupon she married, secondly, Alexander, Earl of Buchan, better known in history as "The Wolf of Badenoch." He died, without issue, in 1394. ”

“ He mistrusted the Earl of Ross, and there came a fear upon his noble spirit that, in permitting the departure of the queen and her attendants, he might be liable to the censure of his sovereign, that he was failing in his trust; yet how was he to act, how put a restraint upon his charge? Had he indeed believed that the defence of the castle would be successful, that [Pg 185] he should be enabled to force the besiegers to raise the siege, he might perhaps have felt justified in restraining the queen—but he did not feel this. ”

“ Ross carefully revised the poem; and while it was going through the press Beattie sent the author an invitation from the Duke and Duchess of Gordon to visit them at Gordon Castle. The poet, now eighty years old, accepted the invitation, and dedicated his new edition to the duchess, who gave him, at the conclusion of his visit, a pocket-book containing fifteen guineas. The Earl of Northesk, the Earl of Panmure, and other distinguished persons visited Ross when in the neighbourhood. His wife died on 5 May 1779, aged 77. Ross, tended by his second daughter, a widow, lived till 20 May 1784. ”

“ The Earl of Crawford in the north country, and the Lord of Isles who was also Earl of Ross in the west, were as powerful and as intractable as Douglas himself, and more often in open rebellion than in amity with the King, a constant danger and disturbance of all good order and law. ”

“ Earl Harold had put his wife Afreka away, and probably after Sweyn's death formed a union, at a date which it seems impossible to fix, with Hvarflod or Gormflaith, daughter of Malcolm MacHeth of Moray, who was in rebellion in 1134, and was imprisoned in Roxburgh Castle until 1157, when he was released and created Earl of Ross, so that Gormflaith, who could hardly have been born during her father's imprisonment, must have been born either before 1135 or after 1157. ”

“ A veil of deep mystery enshrouds the proceedings of the conspirators. Foremost amongst their number was Ferquhard, Earl of Strathearn, whose father, Malise, had been the spokesman of the discontented Scots at the battle of the Standard; together with a certain Gilleanrias Ergemauche, and five other magnates, or “Mayster men,” as Wynton calls them, including perhaps the Earl of Ross and the Lord of Galloway, or his sons. ”

“ The Monroes and the Dingwalls, with some others of the Earl of Ross his dependers, gathered their forces, and pursued the Highlanders with all diligence; so, overtaking them at Beallogh-ne-broig, between Ferrindonell and Lochbrime, there ensued a cruel battle, well foughten on either side. The Clan-Iver, Clan-tall-wigh and Clan-Leaive, were almost utterly extinguished. The Monroes had a sorrowful victory, with a great loss of their men; and carried back again the Earl of Ross his son. ”

“ Estimable in all the relations of life, he pursued without pretension or self-seeking the combined careers of a philosopher, a patriot, and a philanthropist.
Rosse married, on 14 May 1836, Mary, elder daughter and coheiress of Mr. John Wilmer Field of Heaton Hall, Yorkshire. He had by her four sons, of whom the eldest is the present Earl of Rosse. Lady Rosse died on 22 July 1885. ”

“ The patent of the Earldom was thus made out:—"We, considering the probity, the wise and provident circumspection, and the illustriousness of manners and birth of our beloved and trusty William le Scrope, Chevalier, and willing deservedly to exalt him by the prerogative of honour, do create him in Parliament to be Earl of Wiltes; and do invest him with the style, name, and honour of the place aforesaid, by the girding of the sword, to have to him and his heirs-male for ever. ”

“ On 15 July 1555 Sutherland received from the queen regent the government of the earldom of Ross in addition to that of Sutherland. In politics he uniformly supported his relative the Earl of Huntly, who made use of him frequently as his representative in diplomatic negotiations. ”

“ As soon as the Earl of Caithness’s retainers heard of the escape of Earl Alexander, they collected a party of men favourable to their interests, and went in hot pursuit of him as far as Port-ne-Coulter; but they found that the earl and his friends had just crossed the ferry. [180]
Shortly after this affair a quarrel ensued between the Monroes and the clan Kenzie, two very powerful Ross-shire clans. Lesley, the celebrated bishop of Ross, had made over to his cousin, the Laird of Balquhain, the right and title of the castle of the Canonry of Ross, together with the castle lands. ”

“ The surname Ross has in early times been invariably rendered in Gaelic as Gilleanrias, or Gillanders, and the Rosses appear under this appellation in all the early Acts of Parliament. There is also an unvarying tradition that on the death of the last Earl of the O'Beolan line a certain Paul Mac Tire was for some years head of the Rosses, and this tradition is corroborated by the fact that there is a charter on record by Earl William of the lands of Gairloch in 1366 in favour of Paul Mac Tire and his heirs by Mary Graham, in which the Earl styles Mac Tire his cousin. ”

“ The Duke of York had with him, in Sandal Castle, his family, including the youthful Earl of Rutland. Boy-like, he must needs go and see the battle, and nothing could dissuade him. "I will go," said he, "and see my father kill the cruel Queen; and when I am a man I will go and fight, and kill his enemies too." "A battle is not a place, Lord Edmund," replied his tutor and chaplain, Sir Robert Aspall, "for boys. A stray arrow might kill you." "Think not, sir priest," replied the brave boy, "that a son of Richard of York is afraid of an arrow! ”

“ What the Earl of Douglas was in the south of Scotland, that were the Earls of Crawford and of Ross in the north. [103] Singly they were formidable; united they seemed irresistible. When, therefore, in the middle of the fifteenth century, they actually leagued together, and formed a strict compact against all their common enemies, it was hard to say what limit could be set to their power, or what resource remained to the government, except that of sowing disunion among them. ”

“ The Queen came with her army upon Wakefield Green, with the Duke of Somerset, son of the slain Duke, in chief command, and Clifford and Wiltshire, son of the Earl who fell at St. Alban's, in command of ambuscades, one on each side. Then, aware of her numerical superiority, she appeared before Sandal, and summoned the Duke to come forth and fight her. "What, are you afraid of encountering an army led by a woman? Cowardly poltroon! can you be fit to wear the crown of England, who shut yourself up in a castle against a woman?" ”

“ He styles himself “Comes Orchadensis” in a deed of 4th March 1388. (Diplom. Norvegicum, v. 246.)
84. Diplom. Norvegicum, ii. 337-339.
85. See the document dated at Cullen, 4th August 1321, quoted on p. lv, supra.
86. In a deed executed at Kirkwall, 20th January 1364, by which Bernard de Rowle resigns to Hugh de Ross (brother of William, Earl of Ross) the whole lands of Fouleroule in Aberdeenshire, the witnesses are John de Gamery and Symon de Othyrles, canons of Caithness; Euphemia de Stratherne, one of the heirs of the late Malise, Earl of Caithness; Thomas de St. ”

“ In August 1783 Ross was appointed deputy adjutant-general in Scotland, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and he served in a similar capacity in India under Lord Cornwallis. He became colonel on 12 Oct. 1793. In August 1794 he went with Earl Spencer and Thomas Grenville to Vienna on a special mission to arrange that Lord Cornwallis should command the allies against the French. Their efforts were unsuccessful. He accompanied Lord Cornwallis as major-general to Warley camp in April 1795, and two months later was nominated surveyor-general of the ordnance in succession to the Earl of Berkeley. ”

“ The Earl and his followers gained the castle, and were seated in consultation on what were best to be done in the emergency, when loud shouts assailed their ears from outside, and, looking forth, they perceived that they had been followed by the mob, infuriated by the harangues of their leaders. Although implored not to do so, but to shut the gates and stand a siege, the Earl went out and faced the insurgents.
"What want you, good people?" ”

“ So saying, the Bishop took up his staff, and bidding farewell to the Earl and his family, wended his way, accompanied by Brithunus and the monks, through Westwood to his home at Beverlega.
From this time the two young ladies continued to grow in stature and loveliness of person, as well as in fervent piety and the grace of God. They had sprung up into young womanhood, and many were the suitors for their hands who came fluttering about South Burton, knowing well that, as the Earl had no son, nor was likely to have one, they must, if they survived him, become his co-heiresses. ”

“ Henry Percy, fourth Earl of Northumberland, was one of the most potent nobles of the north, and had castles at Topcliffe, on the Swale, near Thirsk; at Leckonfield, near Beverley; and at Wressil, near Howden—all maintained with a splendour almost regal, with barons, knights, and esquires as members of his household and retinue. The Castle of Topcliffe, the earliest and chief seat of the Percies, stood with its massive keep, battlemented towers, gateway, walls, and dungeon, upon an elevated mound called Maiden Bower, on the river Swale, near the confluence of the Cod-beck. ”

“ Meanwhile Gloucester and his nephew, the Earl of Derby, afterwards King Henry IV., finding that none but the most decided measures would prevail with the king, raised an army of 40,000 men, with which they marched towards London—not with the object of dethroning the king, but to uphold the council and destroy the power of the favourites. ”

“ The King had gone to Ireland to subdue an insurrection, and had left the Earl of Wiltes as guardian of the realm, who, on hearing of the march of Lancaster towards London, fled, with others, to Bristol, hoping to join the King there on his return from Ireland. ”

“ Although the Lancastrians fought bravely, nothing could withstand the superior number of the Yorkists, combined, as it was, with the military skill and impetuous valour of the Earl of Warwick, and in a short space of time there lay dead the Duke of Somerset and the Earls of Northumberland and Stafford ”

“ I suppose executions, attainders, and confiscations?"
"Precisely so; and Lord Clifford, one of the most bitter foes of the House of York, will certainly be included in the first list, his title extinguished, and his estates confiscated."
"And my poor children will thus lose all their inheritance; but it is not that I dread this so much as the vengeance of the Duke—King now, I presume—and of the Earl of Warwick. I fear me that even if their lives are not sacrificed, they will be cast into dungeons, to languish out their lives." ”

“ But it was shown that before Henry's assumption of the crown, whilst the King was in captivity, he made grants of the Earl's lands and goods in the name of the King, using Richard's name and seal for the purpose, as he did also in issuing writs for the summoning of a new Parliament, which were ante-dated so as to appear to have been issued by the King, and this Parliament it was which passed the Act of the Attainder. ”

“ Amongst other grants he gave him the Lordship of Knaresborough Castle and forest, with divers liberties, franchises, and privileges, which led him to assume a high and dictatorial tone to the nobles of the realm, who expostulated with the King, and compelled him to banish the insolent foreigner. But the King, not able to learn wisdom in the school of experience, recalled him and bestowed fresh benefits upon him, which so exasperated the Barons that they rose in arms, with Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, at their head, captured the favourite in Scarborough Castle, and beheaded him. ”

“ In the course of the repast, the conversation was confined almost exclusively to two topics—the new church and the hopes that were entertained of its becoming a blessing to the neighbourhood, and the illness of the Earl's wife, with which the Bishop sympathised with much kindly feeling.
"Can nothing be done," inquired the Earl, "by means of the church to alleviate her sufferings, if not to restore her to health? The physicians are at their wit's end; they know nothing of the nature of the disease, and the remedies they give seem rather to aggravate than cure it. ”

“ The appointment of Kintail as Deputy- Chamberlain of the Earldom of Ross was due to and in acknowledgment of these signal and repeated services, and the obligations and advantages of the office were found to be reciprocal. The first and only instance in which the Earl's connection with Mackenzie is likely to have been of service in the field is on the occasion when, in 1605, he sent "six score" men to support him against Glengarry, and these, it has been seen, had fled before they saw the enemy. ”

“ Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria, and Waltheof fled to Scotland, but afterwards tendered their submission to the King, the latter in person, the other by proxy. Waltheof was a man of immense power and influence as Lord of Hallamshire, Malton, and many another broad manor in Yorkshire and other counties, and was, besides, a skilful warrior and brave soldier, and the King, admiring his qualities, longed to win him over as his liege man. ”