The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

APPEND.] OFSCOTLAND 169
his son
was William Odlinger (the noble), whom all the Scots wished
Scotland, the father, of WilHam he was a ; good man ;
to have for their king!' ^
The nation, therefore, in some way expressed a desire to have
and that this expression of
the Boy of Egremont for their king ;
the desire of the nation was made by the seven earls, appears
from the following passages. In 1160, the Chronicle of Melrose
mentions the following event :— " Malcolmus Rex Scotorum
venit de exercitu Tolosa^, cumque venisset in civitatem quae
dicitur Pert, Fereteatht cotnes et v. alii comites, irati contra regem
quia perrexit Tolosam, obsederunt civitatem et regem capere
voluerunt ; sed praesumtio illorum minime praevaluit." This
attack by the earls was made in favour of the Boy of Egremont,
for Winton mentions him as being among the conspirators as
well as Gilleandres, Earl of Ross ; and the fact that, while
Winton assures us that the Boy of Egremont and the Earl
of Ross were present, the Chronicle of Melrose does not include
either among the six earls, shews very clearly that these six
carls were acting in some public capacity peculiar to them.
The following passage in Bower shews equally clearly,
however, that the demonstration made by the six earls was the
event alluded to by the Saga, when it says, " whom all the Scots
wished to have for their king " :—
" Videntes denique Scotorom proceres nimiam sui regis
familiaritatem cum Anglorum rege Henrico et amicitiam, turbati
sunt valde, et omnis Scotia cum illis. Timuerunt enim ne -sua
familiaritas opprobrium illis pararet et contemptum :
quod
omni
studio praicavere conantes, iniserunt legationem post euin, dicentes ;
nolunius hunc regnare super nos. Propterea reversus ab exercitu
de Tholosa, Scotiam adveniens, propter diversas causarum
exigentias, auctoritate regia praelatos jubet et proceres apud burgum
regium de Perth convenire. Concitatis interim regni
majoribus, sex comites, Ferchard, scilicet. Comes de Strathern et alii
quinqjie, adversus regem, non utique pro singulari commodo seu
proditiosa conspiratione, immo reipublics tuitione commoti, ipsum
capere nisi sunt, quern infra turrim ejusdem urbis obsederunt.
Cassato pro tunc eorum, Deo disponente, conatu, non multis
'
Orkneyinga Saga, p. 90.