Note 137 — Part III. Appendices. Historical Documents.

There appears to be no record in Norwegian history of these piratical visits. They may possibly have been undertaken with the view of selecting a place of disembarkation for the Scottish levies. The Earl of Orkney in question was one of the great feudal lords of Scotland. He committed "many extravagant excesses of arbitrary authority amongst the wild recesses of the Orkney and Zetland Islands;" and having at length shown some token of a wish to assume sovereign power, he was tried and executed at Edinburgh on the 6th February 1614 ("Tales of a Grandfather"). In the Swedish State Archives is preserved a letter, dated London, April 4, 1611, from "Robert Stewart" to Steinbock, Swedish ambassador at the Hague, urging that if money be sent there is a good opportunity of engaging men, as "thair is sum companeis to be cassered out of holand ... this nixt mounth." There is also an earlier letter from him to the same ambassador, dated London, December 10, 1610, recommending the bearer, Captain Stewart, for employment, and asking, "Hwat seruice your maister the King of Sueden will employ me with and wpon what condiciounes. Without mony I noe he can do no seruice to the Kyng your (L) maister." On the 29th November 1610 the Duke of "Lenox" wrote to Steinbock, warmly recommending Captain James Stuart, who desired to repair a second time to Sweden. Another letter from him (likewise in the Swedish Archives), relating to William Stuart, will be found on page 178.