Note 54 — INTRODUCTION.

In the Wardrobe Rolls of King Edward I. (1290) the following payments occur:—“Sept. 1.—To Lord Eli de Hamville going by the king’s orders with the Lord Bishop of Durham towards Scotland to meet the messengers of the King of Norway and the princess, and was to return with the news to the king. To John Tyndale, the messenger from the Bishop of St. Andrews, who brought letters from his master to the king concerning the rumours of the arrival of the Princess of Scotland in Orkney—by gift of the king, xxsh. To William Playfair, messenger of the Earl of Orkney, who brought letters to our Lord the King, on the part of Lord John Comyn, concerning the reported arrival of the Scottish Princess in Orkney—by gift of the king, xiiish. 4d.” There is also a detailed account of the expenses of two messengers who left Newcastle on the 15th September, were at Haberdene on the 23d, at the Meikle Ferry in Sutherland on the 30th, where they met the messengers from Scotland, then proceeded by Helmsdale and Spittal to Wick, which they reached on the 4th October. They left Wick on the 6th October, and arrived at Norham on the 21st November. On the 13th May of the following year (1291) Earl John of Orkney had a safe conduct to come to King Edward till the 24th June, when the earl would doubtless communicate to the king all that he knew of the princess’s death.