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Earls in the Baronage of Scotland

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An Earl/Marquess/Duke in the Baronage of Scotland is an ancient title of nobility that is held en baroneum, which means that its holder, who is a feudal earl/marquess/duke, is also always a feudal baron. The holder may or may not be a Lord of Regality, which meant that the holder was appointed by the Crown and had the power of "pit and gallows", meaning the power to authorise the death sentence.

A feudal earl/marquess/duke ranks above both a baron and a lord (being a baron of a higher degree) in the Baronage of Scotland, but below all ranks in the Peerage of Scotland. Earldoms, marquisates and dukedoms are very rare.[1]

Since all feudal titles are based in Scots property law and not personal peerages, there are some instances when, for historic reasons, the feudal title happens to share the same name as an extant peerage title, but the current holder of the feudal title is different from the current holder of the peerage title of the same name. The two are not to be confused. Historically, they were held by one and the same person, but the feudal title may subsequently have been disponed according to Scots property law, whereas the peerage title always descends according to the destination in the letters patent of creation of the peerage and the rules of peerage law.

Scottish titles, in order of precedence, are as follows: Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Lord, Baronet, Knight, Baron, Clan Chief, Esquire/Gentleman. Wallace states that "Lordships, Earldoms, Marquisates and Dukedoms differ only in name from Baronies" but continues "one whose property was erected into a Lordship ranked before a simple Baron" and "A person to whom an Earldom belonged, would be superior to a person who had no more than a lordship ... One, whose lands were incorporated into a Marquisate, was superior to both ... A man, who owned a fief elevated into a Dukedom, was exulted above all three."[2] However, Lord Stair states that Lordships or Earldoms are "but more noble titles of a Barony".[3]

Modern status[edit]

In 2014 the Lord Lyon King of Arms issued the "Note on the Petition of George Menking", under which he determined to accept petitions for the grant arms for feudal dignities including Earldoms, Marquisates and Dukedoms since such dignities have historically always been of the genus of a barony and as such represent a higher form of barony and fall within the jurisdiction of the King of Arms.

The Menking Note is considered an important change (and return to similar status of an earlier Lord Lyon) from an interim ruling on the petition in 2010 by a Swiss national Willi Ernst Sturzenegger, who had purchased the feudal Earldom of Arran, and wished to be titled as 'Willi Ernst Sturzenegger of Arran, Earl of Arran in the territorial baronage of Scotland' or 'Sturzenegger of Arran, holder of the territorial Earldom of Arran", or 'Sturzenegger of Arran, holder of the feudal Earldom of Arran'. In 2006, an earlier Lord Lyon had recognised three petitioners as "Feudal Countess of Crawfurd-Lindsay", "Feudal Earl of Breadalbane" and "Feudal Earl of Rothes". In the ruling in 2010, the Lord Lyon stated that as a general rule previous decisions should be followed, but he could not agree with them as the arguments in the previous cases did not appear to have been tested and no reasoning had been given by the prior Lord Lyon for his decisions. The title "feudal Earl", "territorial Earl", or simply "Earl", being used or recognised in respect of an assemblage of lands into an earldom had never existed until recently. He stated that while the Abolition of Feudal Tenure Act of 2000 divorced feudal baronies from land title, it preserved the title of baron. This was not the case he found with "territorial" or "feudal earldoms": "On the contrary there is a clear break between the type of territorial earldoms which existed before the evolution of a personal peerage, and the later erection of lands into what has been termed a “territorial earldom”. He therefore did not accept that it follows from the recognition of a feudal baron, or one possessed of the dignity of a former feudal barony, as “Baron of X”, that the person in possession of a “territorial earldom” stemming from the erection by the Crown of lands into a free earldom, should be recognised as an “Earl” or “Countess”, “feudal” or otherwise."[4]

List of Earldoms in the Baronage of Scotland[edit]

Below is an incomplete list of Earldoms created in the baronage, please help by filling in details below (with reference links).

Titles in italics are subsidiary baronial titles held in conjunction with the earldom. Titles linked and with The before the name is the holder's primary title.

Title Created Infeft Arms Incumbent Heir Notes
The Earl of Aboyne 1676[5] 2016   Christiano Arnhold Simoes, Earl of Aboyne
The Earl of Angus 1594
The Earl of Arran 2024   Susan Clarke Livingston, Countess of Arran, Lady Balquidder[6] In 1995 Willi Ernst Sturzenegger, the former earl, received (from the Duke of Hamilton) "disponed to him of All and Whole the Earldom of Arran including the caput thereof which grant can be traced back to an erection by the Crown of lands in unum comitatum"[7][note 1]
Baron of Balquidder
The Earl of Breadalbane 2004   John Sullivan of Braemar, Earl of Breadalbane, Lord of Braemar and Lord of Kildrummie [8][9] Alan MacKay was the former Earl
Lord of Braemar
Lord of Kildrummie
The Earl of Crawfurd-Lindsay 2004   HRH Abigail Busch Reisinger, Countess of Crawfurd-Lindsay, Baroness of Auchterutherstruther [1] father is HM Ronald Busch Reisinger, Baron of Inneryne
Baron of Auchterutherstruther
The Earl of Dunbar 1606 Robert Douglas, Earl of Dunbar
The Earl of Eglinton 1607   Hugh Montgomerie, 19th Earl of Eglinton
The Earl of Erroll   Dr. David Willien, Earl of Erroll, Baron of Tulloch
Baron of Tulloch
The Earl of Lennox 1594 2017   Charles Gordon-Lennox, 11th Duke of Richmond Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, Earl of March and Kinrara
The Earl of Nithsdale extinct
The Earl of Orkney 1603 1998   Peter St John, 9th Earl of Orkney Oliver Robert St John, Viscount Kirkwall
The Earl of Rothes 1458 2004   Sir Philip Christopher Ondaatje, Earl of Rothes, Lord of Leslie, Sheriff of Fife[10]
Lord of Leslie
Sheriff of Fife
The Earl of Wigtown 1341 2004   Dr. Roland Ladislaus Zettel, Earl of Wigtown

Note that some peerage titles of feudal origin sometimes have a duplicate baronage title of the same name either held by the current peer or transferred to a new holder.

List of Marquisates and Dukedoms in the Baronage of Scotland[edit]

The below are very rare, only two baronage titles are known to continue existing until today.

Title Created Infeft Arms Incumbent Heir Notes
The Marquess of Huntly 1684[7] 2015   William Andrews of Huntly, Marquess of Huntly
The Duke of Albany 1565[11] extinct
The Duke of Hamilton 1661[7] 2010   Alexander Douglas-Hamilton, 16th Duke of Hamilton Douglas Charles Douglas-Hamilton, Marquess of Douglas and Clydesdale peer's title has feudal origins
The Duke of Lennox 1581[12] extinct
The Duke of Montrose 1488[13] extinct

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ In 2010 the Lord Lyon King of Arms issued an interlocutor holding that the title "feudal earl" cannot be recognised, and has no basis in either law or history

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Feudal Baronies and Manorial Lordships" (PDF). baronage.co.uk. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 September 2008. Retrieved 13 December 2009.
  2. ^ Ancient Peerages, 2nd Edition, Edinburgh, 1785, pp 127-130
  3. ^ Institutes, II.3.45
  4. ^ "Lyon Court Note" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016.
  5. ^ General Register Office, ed., Registrum magni sigilli regum Scotorum : The register of the Great seal of Scotland, A.D. 1306-1668, Edinburgh, 1882, p. 339
  6. ^ "Baronage – Registry of Scots Nobility". Archived from the original on 27 February 2024. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  7. ^ a b c "Decision of Lord Lyon King of Arms "Skye, 8 October 2009"" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  8. ^ "The Arms of J. Sullivan of Braemar, Earl of Breadalbane, Lord of Braemar and Kildrummie". The Armorial Register, UK. Archived from the original on 29 January 2023. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  9. ^ "Decision of Lord Lyon King of Arms "Skye, 8 October 2009"" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  10. ^ "Decision of Lord Lyon King of Arms "Skye, 8 October 2009"" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  11. ^ Scotland; Great Britain. General Register Office (Scotland) (1882). Registrum magni sigilli regum Scotorum : The register of the Great seal of Scotland, A.D. 1306-1668. University of California Libraries. Edinburgh : General register house.
  12. ^ Scotland; Great Britain. General Register Office (Scotland) (1882). Registrum magni sigilli regum Scotorum : The register of the Great seal of Scotland, A.D. 1306-1668. University of California Libraries. Edinburgh : General register house.
  13. ^ Scotland; Great Britain. General Register Office (Scotland) (1882). Registrum magni sigilli regum Scotorum : The register of the Great seal of Scotland, A.D. 1306-1668. University of California Libraries. Edinburgh : General register house.
  • Register of the Great Seal of Scotland;
  • Abolition of Feudal Tenure Act, Scotland;
  • Statutes of 1592;
  • Baronetcy Warrants of Charles I.
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