Volume 3

264
where they resided in obscurity, which formed a sad contrast to the ages of
splendour that their dignified fathers had uniformly enjoyed (t). They appear,
however, to have inherited the barony of Kilconquhar in Fife, which, as it had
been held under the bishops of St. Andrews, seems not to have been involved
in the forfeiture of the honours and lands which were held in chief of the
king (u). Thus ended the long line of the Earls of Dunbar, who were as dig-
nified for their connections as they were respectable for their opulence, and
who, for so many generations, enjoyed such vast estates and so much influence
in Berwickshire.
The estates of that family and the earldom of the March were now invested
in the crown. The whole was of course delivered to the management of a
Stewart, who collected the revenues and administered justice within its juris-
diction. But it was not quiet. The Hepburns and Homes contended for
superiority in turbulence (x). The earldom of March was at length conferred
by James II. on his second son, Alexander, the Duke of Albany, who was also
made warden of the East Marches, It will soon appear that those most ancient
Earls were but ill exchanged for the king's kinsman (y).
Almost the whole events of the turbulent reign of James III., who succeeded
his father on the 3rd of August 1460, turned upon the misconduct of his brother,
the Duke of Albany. The king was born in 1452, his brother Alexander in
1453, and his brother John, the Earl of Mar, about the year 1455, and they
lost in 1463, the benefit of their mother's counsels, when Mary of Gueldre
died, a woman of a masculine spirit, but a widow of suspected chastity (z).
(t) Rym., x. 618-628-9.
(u) About the year 1457, Bishop Kennedy gave a charter to Patrick Dunbar, the heir of the late
Earl, of the barony of Kilconquhar, etc. Dougl. Peer., 442, who quotes Macfarlane's Col. of Charters.
The peerage writer says that the posterity of Patrick continued, in possession of that barony till the
recent times of Mary Stewart, when the last of them died without mule-issue.
(x) In 1446, Sir Patrick Hepburn of Hailes took the castle of Dunbar by surprise ; and Archibald
Dunbar, in his turn, took the castle of Hailes. Abercromby, ii. 386. In the chartulary of Coldingham
there are some letters of James II., in 1446, "de rebellione Patricii Hebburn, militis, occupantis
castruna de Dunbar." Lord Home was, at the same time, probably, stewart of the earldom of March,
and collected its revenues. Pitscottie, 133.
(y) The Duke of Albany, as he enjoyed that trust and those estates before August, 1455, must have
had a grant of them from his father when he was scarcely two years old, as he was born in 1453.
The parliament which sat in August 1455, declared void all grants of offices in fee, " exceptand the
wardenry of the Merche, the quhilk owr soverane lord has given till his sone Alexander Erle of Merche,
and lord of Ananderdale." Black Acts, Ja. II., c. 47.
(z) Lord Hailes' Remarks, 141, contains a defence of the chastity of Mary of Gueldre; Lord
Elibank's Remarks, ch. viii., who seems to recognize the influences of truth.