Family records of the Bruces and the Cumyns

60 ALEXANDER III.
Alexander was the first Scottish king who is observed to have made use of
the plural number " nos, nostrum" &c, in his charters.
Sealing is supposed to have been brought in by the Normans ; but before
Malcolm Caenmore's time grants of land given to churchmen and others were
verbal, in presence of honourable witnesses. Afterwards, when charters began
to be given, the granter and witnesses generally signed with a -f, and the clerk
wrote above each -f whose it was, as seen in King Duncan's charter.
Alexander II. had a natural daughter, " Marjorie," married to "Alan le
Huissier" or " Alan Durward," whose first wife having been one of the heiresses
of Athol, he was during her lifetime " Earl of Athol."
This Marjorie was legitimised during the minority of Alexander III. by
Robert, Abbot of Dunfermline and Chancellor of Scotland, which so displeased
the king that Robert was dismissed from the chancellorship.
"Nicholas de Soulis" was a competitor in 1292, in her right, as the son of
her daughter Ermengarde.
By his second wife, Mary de Couci, King Alexander left an only son and
heir, " Alexander."
July Prince Alexander, born in September 1241, was not eight years of age
I2 49- w l ien his father died. Nevertheless his father's personal friends, at the head
of whom was " Walter Cumyn, Earl of Menteith," determined that, to pre-
vent the encroachments of Henry of England, he should be crowned without
delay.
The Estates of the realm were called upon by Menteith, as guardian, to
assemble at Scone ; and all pretended difficulties being overcome, Alexander
was girded with the sword of state, and knighted by the Bishop of St Andrews ;
and then being crowned, was conducted to the churchyard, where, beside the
cross, stood " the Stone of Destiny," covered for the occasion with cloth-of-gold.
Placed on this seat in his royal robes, and bearing his crown and sceptre, the
child-king received the homage of his subjects, on their bended knees, ranged in
a circle around him.
An ancient bard next made his appearance, robed in scarlet, and, kneeling
before the throne, recited in Gaelic the royal genealogy from the ancient line of
Alban's kings — a custom by which the descent of many Gaelic chiefs has been
brought down, by tradition, to the present time. Thus five days after his
father's death Alexander III. was crowned King of Scotland. — Fordun, i. 10,
c. 11.
1 25 1-2 . The days of peace with England had nearly been brought to a termination
by the intrigues of Henry. However, war was averted by a discreet ambas-
sador, John Maunsell by name, who was deputed to negotiate the marriage of