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of the whole churches of the earldom of Lennox, with the fishing of the water of Leven and the entry to the still waters of Lochlomond, and half the island of Inchtavannach and Castle-gyle, with all the pertinents belonging to the said Elizabeth by right of heritage in the Lennox. Upon this charter she obtained infeftment on the 22d September 1490.

Having thus arranged matters with Elizabeth Menteith, Dernely's next object was to quiet the claims of Haldane of Gleneagles. Agnes Menteith was by this time dead, and never having made up her titles to the Lennox, James Haldane her eldest son, proceeded to do so in his own person in the beginning of the year 1490. His retours are precisely in the same general terms as Elizabeth Menteith's, nor do they indicate the slightest superiority of claim upon his part. The term of non-entry of the lands since the demise of his great-great-grandfather Earl Duncan, to whom he serves, is stated at sixtysix years, corresponding to the interval between the date of the retour and the Earl's death. In the beginning of the year 1492, James Haldane took out brieves for a division of the whole earldom, as between him and Dernely. Upon the 14th June of that same year, Elizabeth Menteith, to check this assumption, obtained letters under the privy-seal, to be afterwards noticed, for the protection of her own interests in the matter. Upon the 19th of the same month, John Haldane appears as procurator for his son James in the Sheriff-court of Dunbartonshire, and produces brieves of division of the remaining three quarters of the Comitatus, between James Haldane and Dernely, which accordingly takes place, with the express reservation and protection of the other quarter already allotted to Elizabeth Menteith.

This has been supposed finally to have settled the partition of the Lennox among the heirs-general of Earl Duncan. But there is a process, the date of which, as shall be afterwards shown, has hitherto been mistaken, which certainly occurred subsequently to the process of division above-mentioned. It is a new summons of reduction, (dated 2d February 1492, that is, subsequent to June 1492, as the year then commenced on the 25th March,) of Dernely's service, already reduced, but upon which he had again resumed the honours. This is called in court on the 15th of June thereafter, that is, in 1493. It is there delayed of consent of parties until October following. But in the interval" there is a commission dated 8th July 1493 by John Lord Dernely, therein designed Earl of Lennox, to Mathew Stewart, his well beloved son and apparent heir, and to John Stewart of Henrieston, also his son, to go to the kirk of Drymen on the 9th of July then instant, and to commune and agree with John Haldane of Gleneagles, anent the avail of the Earldom of Lennox."* Accordingly, on the 11th July 1493, an indenture is concluded at Drymen betwixt "ane nobile and myty Lord Johnne Erle of Levenax, Lord Dernle, and Mathew his son, apperand ayer and fear of the said Erldom on the ta part, and John Haldane of Glenegass, and James his son, apperand ayer and ane of the parsonars fears of the said Erldom, &c. on the tother part," &c. This contract is precisely of the nature of that concluded with Elizabeth Menteith and her son in 1490. It names, however, the lands which are to compose Haldane's quarter of the fief; and adds certain other lands by way of excambion " for the hale and full contentatioun of all

* Andrew Stewart's History, p. 186.

the rycht clame and interest of the said James, his ayers or assignees, or that may be had in or to the properte or the superiorite of the said erldom, or profyt of the samyn," &c.*

This completes the long delayed partition of the Lennox among the coheirs of Earl Duncan, leaving the youngest, but most powerful branch, in the undisputed possession of the honours.

Elizabeth Menteith, being advanced in years, resigned in 1507 her great possessions in favour of her son Archibald Napier, who subsequently, upon his own resignation, obtained a charter under the Great Seal, dated 21st May 1509, incorporating these estates in the Lennox and Menteith to be held in free barony, called the barony of" Edinballinaper."

About the same period the barony of Haldane, composed in like manner of the lands that had come to that family by Agnes Menteith, was erected in favour of Sir John Haldane (the grandson of Dernely's opponent) who by this time had succeeded his father James.

The Dernely branch of the earldom also obtained new charters of their possessions. "It appears (says Andrew Stewart) that Mathew Earl of Lennox, sensible of the distinction between the destination of the lordship of Dernely, received by grant from the Steward of Scotland, in the year 1361, and the destination of the lands composing the earldom of Lennox, and the title or peerage of Earl connected with those lands, obtained, on the 25th January in the same year, 1511-12, a separate charter from James IV. of the earldom of Levenax, lordship and lands thereof, and the office of

*Gleneagles Papers.

sheriff of the whole county of Dunbarton; which premises are declared to have belonged, and to belong at the date of the said charter, to the said Mathew Earl of Lennox, heritably. But in this charter of the earldom of Levenax, the lands are not given, as in the charter of the lordship of Dernely, to Mathew Earl of Levenax, and his heirs-male, but to Mathew Stewart Earl of Levenax, and his heirs-general, ("heredibus suis,") which is repeated in several parts of the charter, without any indication of a limitation to heirs-male. This destination has probably been owing to the circumstance, that the ancient investitures of the earldom of Levenax had been in favour of heirs-general." Unquestionably, as

we shall see, it was owing to the fact, that the basis of Dernely's assumption of the earldom was no special grant, but the charter of confirmation by King Robert III. to Earl Duncan in 1392, containing an ultimate substitution of the tailzied fief to the heirs-general of that Earl.

These honours brought no good fortune to the race of Earls who succeeded the usurper. That nobleman was the only one of them who died a natural death. Mathew, the second Earl, very soon after the above-mentioned renewal of his titles, died in harness. He remained firmly attached to James IV., and at Flodden commanded, with the Earl of Argyle, the right wing of the Scottish battle. There the daring but unlucky blood of Dernele and D'Aubigny once more stained a disastrous field; for alas,

Stanley broke Lennox and Argyle,
Though there the western mountaineer
Rushed with bare bosom on the spear,
And flung the feeble targe aside,

And with both hands the broadsword plied-
'Twas vain!

Lennox, and Sir Alexander Napier of Merchiston,* (who ought to have been Lennox,) with many another noble and knightly patriot, died on Flodden field. +

*Son of Archibald.

+ Mathew Stewart was succeeded by his son John, third Earl of that race, who was killed during the minority of James V. in the skirmish near Linlithgow, which occurred 4th September 1526. The young King hurried to the spot, but was too late to save Lennox. He found Arran mourning over his body with these words: "The wisest man, the stoutest man, the hardiest man, that Scotland ever knew is slain this day." His son and successor was Earl Mathew, the father of the ill-fated consort of Queen Mary. This earl survived his son, and was killed at Stirling on the 4th of September (the day and month fatal to his father) 1571, when the earldom merged in the crown of the infant James.

In the year 1572, new charters of the earldom were granted to Charles Stewart, the King's paternal uncle, and his heirs-male. He died in 1576, leaving only one daughter, the unfortunate Arabella Stewart. The earldom was then bestowed in 1578 upon Robert Stewart, (second son of John, third Earl of that race,) who very soon relinquished it in favour of his brother's son, the celebrated Esme, Lord of Aubigny, (who had been reared in France,) and Robert became Earl of March instead. Esme got the earldom of Lennox in 1579, and in 1581 it was erected into a dukedom in his favour. The honours again merged in the Crown when Charles, sixth Duke of Lennox and fourth Duke of Richmond, dying without issue, King Charles II. was served to him as nearest collateral heir-male. This monarch then bestowed the honours of Richmond and Lennox upon his natural son by a French lady, from whom the modern Dukes of Richmond and Lennox.

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