Note 8 — INTRODUCTORY. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE DUNDONALD FAMILY.
Reading edition
The following extract from Crawfurd shows that the title and revenues of the earldom of Mar were in the hands of James at this time:—
“Erskine Earl of Mar.
“Which Thomas [Erskine Earl of Mar,] did prosecute his father’s claim to the earldom of Mar with all the vigour imaginable, but having a powerful party, the king, to deal with, at length a final sentence was given against him in parliament, on the 5th November 1457, which he was obliged to acquiesce in; but notwithstanding the hard measure he had undergone from the king, and which might have been thought would have made him ready to have taken all occasions of being severe of it, yet he was a person of so much honour and virtue that in the succeeding reign of James III., when he had a very fair opportunity to be revenged, yet he no sooner saw the ways of duty towards the king decline, and his power envied by a strong party of the nobility, than out of pure conscience to serve his Majesty when he was in distress he fairly engaged in his quarrel, and when the war broke out accepted a command in the army, in which he continued till the very end that the king was miserably killed in the field of Stirling on the 11th of June 1488.”