Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 2.djvu/410

 CRAWFORD. principal lief .if Crawford, with a regality, or, as it was technically phrased, cum quatuor puneti* eovona, conveying privileges to biro and Ins posterity analogous to those enjoyed by the Earl* Palatine of Kngland and the Continent. "(») In 14P4, and again in 1106, ho was on an Embassy to Kngland. Dep. Chamberlain 1406. He in. before 1384 (Elizabeth, Jean, or Catherine) a da. of King Roiseiit II [S.] by his 2nd wife, Eunbemia, in. of Hugh, EAHLQF Ross [S.] He el. Feb. 1407. aged (but) 41, at his Castle of Finhaven, in Angus, and was Stir, at Grey Friars Churcb,( r ) Dundee. II. 1107. 2. Alexa.vdiui (Lindsay), Earl of Crawford [8.1 s. and It, He was I. about 1387; was styled " cunsani/u incus" by King Henry VI, of England, in which kingdom lie was engaged in negotiations for the ransom of the Scotch King in 1421, being also a hostage for many of the years between 1406 and 1427 ; was Knighted, 21 May 1123, at the coronation of King James 1. [8.], and was Ambassador to Kngland 1 129-30. He m. Marjory, who was living 1421. She not improbably was a da. of the Earl ok Dunbar fJS.J. He d 143S. III. 1138. J. David (Lind.say), Earl of Crawford [S.], "and Lord the Lyndissay,"(K) s. and h. Was Knighted before 12 Feb. 1436. Sheriff of CO. Aberdeen. He and the Earl of Douglas, being, during the minority of James II [S.J " the most powerful subjects in Scotland,";' 1 ) and endeavouring "to rule paramount in the State* f 6 ) were Opposed by Bishop Kennedy, of St. Andrew's, whoso would take precedence of all other existing Uritish Earldoms, and that of Sutherland, would, in Scotland, assume the second place. But precedence did nut depend, in Scotland, exclusively on the date of creation ; the will of the Sovereign and othir collateral circumstances controlled it. For example, the Earls of Argyle. of later creation by 60 years, tool; precedence of those of Crawford, in virtue of the hereditiry High Justiciarship of Scotland, bestowed upon the family in the 16th century ; the Earls of Angus, similarly, had received a grant of perpetual precedency over all other Earls in Scotland, and they were accordingly ranked lirst, before those of Argyle, tho' much more recent than either Sutherland or Marr. Crawford can assert no such grant, nor were there any great public offices hereditary in the family, such as those possessed by Argyle, and yet, whether thro' the non-appearance of the Earls of Sutherland in 1'arl. previously to the year 1477, whether, thro' the honours having lapsed to female heirs, or thro' whatever cause, it was a fact that the Earldoms of Sutherland and Marr had lost the precedence, and that Crawford possessed it ; and on this immemorial usage and prescription the family lawyers rested their defence on the tioo great occasions when the question was mooted [viz.] in 1606, when the ' Ranking of the Nobility ' took place at the command of James I (with a view to settle the feuds then existing regarding precedence) and at the Union in 1707, at both which times tho sentence was given in favour of the Earl of Crawford." See "Lives of the Lindsay." To this it may be added that these Earls long held a position and influence beyond any others of that rank, excepting only the Earls of Douglas. (°) See " Lives of the Lindsays." (0 Here "generation after generation of the Earls of Crawford were finally laid to rest, and their tombs were still to be seen in Gothic magnificence till the destruction both of convent and church at the Reformation." See "Lives of the Lindsays." (8) He is so designated in 1 143, and the designation has been "ever since borne by the Earls of Crawford." Sec " Lives of tho Lindsays." ('') That nothing should be wanting to the feudal power of the family, the Earls of Crawford acquired, early in the 15th century, the Sheriffdom of Aberdeenshire [which they held till 1511, and only finally resigned in 1541] in hereditary right, and soon after the middle of the century that of Forfarshire. The Earldom of Crawford, therefore, like those of Douglas, of Moray, Ross, March, and others of the earlier times of feudalism, formed a petty principality, an impcrium in imperio — the Earls affected Royal State, hold their courts, had their heralds or pursuivants, and occasionally assumed the style of' Princes, KC They had also a Concilium, or petty Parliament, consisting of the great vassals of the Earldom with whose advise they acted on great and important occasions." See " Lives of the Lindsays."