Note 236 — Chapter VIII

John and Rich. Hexham 1136. Hen. Hunt., l. 8, p. 222. Malm. Hist. Nov., l. 1, sec. 12. Lingard has no authority for saying that “David claimed Cumberland as having formerly belonged to the heir-apparent of the Scottish kings,” c. 11, note 13. There is no allusion to any claim except upon Northumberland (in right of his wife), and this was waived at the time for the fiefs of Carlisle and Doncaster. Strictly speaking, the Scottish royal family never appear to have held the Earldom—or rather perhaps Comitatus—but the Honour of Huntingdon. A grant of the “tertius denarius de placitis,” seems generally to have entitled its holder to the earldom at this period, whilst the holder of an honour was “overlord”—or constable—of a number of knights and barons; for all the tenants of an honour held by military service, and with manorial rights. It was in the power of the king, however, to grant the dignity of an earl, or attach the dignity to any fief, without reference to the “tertius denarius.” Vide Appendix L, pt. 2.