medieval-atlas/administration/183

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Earldoms and 'provincial lordships' 1124 to 1286 The first map is intended to indicate the maximum territorial extents of earldoms before 1286. It must be stressed that the territorial power and public authority enjoyed by earls were not invariably conterminous. Furthermore, with few exceptions (e.g. Atholl, Buchan, Lennox) the whole subject still requires detailed investigation; there is often a dearth of evidence contemporary with the period 1124 1286; and since the medieval earldoms both lost and gained territo ries, the territorial rights or claims recorded after 1286 may be mis leading guides to earlier conditions. This map is therefore only a preliminary statement and by no means definitive. It excludes re moter lands (e.g. North Argyll held by the earls of Ross) that mayor may not have been regarded as parts of earldoms. No attempt has been made to map Gowrie or Moray. Gowrie, called an earldom in twelfth-century sources, was held by the crown; Moray lapsed shortly after 1130 and was not revived until 1312. Where later records have been used, e.g. an extent of Fife (1293-4) and account rolls of Stratheam (1379-80, 1442-6) and Dunbar or March (1450-4), this is subject to the reservation noted above. There were thirteen Scottish earldoms in 1286. Most had developed from the mormaerships (provincial governorships) ofpre feudal Scotland north of the Forth-Clyde line. Eight of the thirteen certainly existed by about 1150: Fife, Strathearn, Angus, Atholl, Mar, Buchan and Caithness in Scotland proper, and Dunbar in Lothian. The earldoms of Carrick, Lennox, Menteith and Ross are also men tioned before 1200. The only new earldom created in the thirteenth century was Sutherland (about 1235). Ross, suppressed in 1168, was revived in c. 1215. Although royal control over the earldoms intensified, they retained importance as provincial governorships until the fourteenth century. But the strength of the earldom-province relationship must not be overstated. Pockets of Crown demesne, even seats of royal sheriffdoms, existed within earldoms. The earls of Fife clearly built up tl)eir earldom lands in stages, largely through royal favour from about 1150, and were never in fact allowed to possess the whole of Fife. Dunbar, strictly a 'non-provincial' earldom, included much but scarcely all of the Merse, and there is the especially striking case of Angus, whose territory was from early on fragmented and limited. Moreover, in the thirteenth century Mar (about 1225), Caithness (about 1240), and Menteith ( 1285) were all partitioned: in Caithness and Menteith, each earl's territory was reduced to half the original earldom lands. Even before 1286, therefore, some earldoms were evidently less impressive as administrative and territorial dignities than others. In the twelfth century only native magnates had the rank of earls, but five earldoms were by 1286 in the hands of families of Anglo-continental descent. Buchan had passed by marriage to ajunior branch of the Comyns, Menteith to ajunior branch of the Stewarts, Angus to the Umfravilles, and Carrick to the Bruces. Sutherland remained under the lordship of the Flemish de Moravias (Murrays). 'Provincial lordships' is a modem term for large estates, similar to the.earldoms, which were more or less coextensive with provinces or districts of the kingdom. Their lords, some of whom held earldoms as well, belonged to the uppermost reaches of noble society. But, as can be seen from the second map, 'provincial lordships' were not all of like dimensions, and a few appear to have been roughly the same size as, or even smaller than, certain self-contained estates usually regarded as 'sub-provincial': e.g. Lauderdale bears compari son with Bothwell, Carnwath and Douglasdale, all within the wider division of Clydesdale. The assignment of estates to one category or the other can in fact be problematic. While efforts have been made to illustrate the extents of 'provincial lordships' as accurately as possible, those of a fair number are highly conjectural due to lack of full or easily accessible evidence. No attempt has been made to map Assynt, Glen Dochart or other units which ought to be con sidered, but about which information is virtually a complete blank before 1286. From 1124 feudal colonisation helped to forge nineteen 'provincial lordships', at least some of which were actually ancient districts or lordships taken over and adapted as feudal holdings. All save Lauderdale lay in the 'outer zone' of the kingdom, where local administration based on sheriffdoms remained relatively undeveloped and the granting to trusted vassals of big tracts of territory, interspersed between the earldoms and other great lordships, was a key means of advancing royal power. By 1165 Anglo-continental farnilies held seven provincial fiefs: Strathgryfe with Renfrew and Meams (Stewart), Cunningham with Largs (Morville), Kyle Stewart or North Kyle, Annandale (Brus), Upper Eskdale with Ewesdale (Avenel), Liddesdale (Soules), and Lauderdale (Morville). North of the Forth, between about 1180 and about 1250 incoming lords acquired Garioch (earl of Hunting don), Strathbogie (David son of Earl Duncan nof Fife), StrathAvon or Stratha'an (earl of Fife), Badenoch and Lochaber (Comyn), the Aird with Strathglass (Bisset), Sutherland (Murray), and Strathnaver (Murray of Duffus). The Stewarts, having secured Bute by c. 1200, controlled Cowal by the 1250s, and a junior branch of the family asserted dominance over Arran and Knapdale in the 1260s. Before 1286 Cunningham (1234), Lauderdale (1234), Garioch (1237), the Aird (about 1260), and Strathnaver (about. 1260) were all partitioned among coheiresses and began to play less important roles. Sutherland was erected into an earldom in about 1235. Whereas each of these 'provincial lordship' was created for, or taken over by, a colonising family normally of Anglo-French descent, the map includes five others, all with pre-feudal origins, which were held by semi-independent native dynasties who gradually came under stronger central authority. Nithsdale (about 1185) and Galloway (1234-5) were ultimately broken up. In the far west, mainland (Scottish) and island (Norwegian to 1266) territories remained under the control of three families descended from Somerled Macgillebrigte (d. 1164): the Macdonalds ofIslay, the Macdougalls of Lom, and the Macruaries of Garmoran. The precise distribution of territories among them is uncertain. Morvem and Ardnamurchan have been linked with Islay or Garmoran, but may well have pertained to Lom. The map thus shows twenty-four 'provincial lordships', although Bute and Cowal can readily be associated with Strathgryfe, Arran with Knapdale, and Lochaber with Badenoch. By combining the two previous maps, the third map underlines the formidably wide predominance of earldoms and 'provinciallordships' in earlier medieval Scotland. Study of the relative distribution of these great territorial units, detailed consideration of their relationship with the expanding network of royal sheriffdoms, and systematic study of the fluctuating composition of the aristocracy they supported, are all invaluable ways of throwing light on the making of the medieval kingdom. KJS 183