Note 90 — INTRODUCTION.

Balfour, Oppressions of Orkney (Maitland Club), p. xxvi. Such was not the opinion of Father Hay, the panegyrist of the St. Clairs of Roslyn. He says that “Henry, prince of Orknay, was more honoured than any of his ancestres, for he had power to cause stamp coine within his dominions, to make laws, to remitt crimes;—he had his sword of honour carried before him wheresoever he went; he had a crowne in his armes, bore a crowne on his head when he constituted laws; and, in a word, was subject to none, save only he held his lands of the King of Danemark, Sweden, and Noraway, and entred with them, to whom also it did belong to crowne any of those three kings, so that in all those parts he was esteemed a second person to the king.” (Genealogie of the St. Clairs, p. 17.) Father Hay’s romances receive no countenance whatever from the deed of investiture.