The earldom takes its name from Mar, an ancient province of Scotland running west from Aberdeen along the
River Dee beyond
Braemar ("upper Mar") to the
Mar Lodge Estate. Mar expanded north past the
River Don to become the region of
Marr, which merged with
Buchan to form the county of
Aberdeenshire.
9th–14th centuries The first Mormaer of Mar is usually regarded as
Ruadrí (
fl. 1131), mentioned in the
Book of Deer. Some modern sources give earlier mormaers, i.e.
Muirchertach (
Latinized as
Martachus) and
Gartnait (sometimes
Gratnach), mentioned respectively in charters of the reigns of king
Máel Coluim III (relating to the
Céli Dé establishment of
Loch Leven) and king
Alexander I (relating to the monastic establishment of
Scone), though in these cases certain identification with a particular province is difficult. The accounts of the
Battle of Clontarf in some of the
Irish annals name
Domnall mac Eimín meic Cainnig, Mormaer of Mar, as among those killed in 1014 alongside
Brian Boru. The Mormaerdom comprised the larger portion of modern
Aberdeenshire, extending from north of the
River Don southward to the
Mounth hills. Its principal seats were
Migvie and
Doune of Invernochty. The Mormaerdom may initially have alternated between two kin-groups, represented respectively by
Morggán, and by
Gille Críst. Gilchrist succeeded Morgund, but was himself succeeded by Donnchadh (Duncan), son of Morgund. On the other hand, we do not know Gilchrist's parentage, and chronologically he could have been an elder brother of Donnchadh. No definite succession of earls appears till the 13th century, and from the middle of the 13th century the earls were recognized as among "the seven earls of Scotland". There was a settlement in around 1230 between Donnchadh and Thomas Durward, grandson, apparently, of Gilchrist, by which Durward had, it is said, £300 of land, a very large amount, which was scattered around the earldom, particularly at Fichlie, near Kildrummy, and Lumphanan in the lowland area. He also had Urquhart, but that probably had nothing to do with the earldom. Donnchadh got the title of Mormaer and the wealthier and militarily more useful upland parts of
Mar.
Earl Thomas died childless in 1374, but the earldom passed via Donnchadh's daughter
Margaret to her husband
William, Earl of Douglas.
15th century , situated on the approach to
Stirling Castle, the Earl of Mar was governor of the castle during the mid-16th century. While the eleventh (by some counts) holder of the title, William and Margaret's daughter
Isabel Douglas, Countess of Mar, was alone at
Kildrummy Castle,
Alexander Stewart, following in the steps of his father the "Wolf of Badenoch" and his uncle Robert, Duke of Albany, murdered Sir Malcolm Drummond, Earl of Mar, captured Kildrummy Castle and forced Mar's widow Isabel Douglas, to marry him. He also forced her to sign a charter on 12 August 1404 yielding the earldom to him and his heirs. She revoked the charter later that year, but on marrying him, she gave him the earldom for life with remainder to
her heirs. The King confirmed her last action the next year. In 1426, Stewart resigned the title so that he could be granted a new one by the King, the new title being more "legitimate". The King did so, but specified that the earldom and associated lands would revert to the Crown upon the death of the Earl. In 1435, the Earl died, and Robert, Lord Erskine, a descendant of
Gartnait, Earl of Mar through his daughter Helen, claimed the title, but the King claimed its lands under the specifications of reversion made in the patent. The issue remained unresolved until 1457, when
James II obtained a court order declaring the lands as crown possessions. Thereafter, he bestowed the title on his son
John, who died without heirs in 1479. It was next granted to James' other son,
Alexander, Duke of Albany, but the title was then declared forfeit because of Alexander's alliances with the English.
James III created his son
John Earl of Mar in 1486, upon whose death in 1503 the title became extinct again.
16th–18th centuries , Earl of Mar from 1689 to 1716 (his attainder).The title was once again created in 1562, for
James, Earl of Moray, son of
James V, but he, too, could not produce a qualified heir. Moray rebelled in 1565 (see
Chaseabout Raid) in protest at the marriage of
Mary, Queen of Scots, and
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Consequently, Queen Mary restored (or created) the earldom of Mar for
John, Lord Erskine, heir to the Lord Erskine, heir of the ancient Earls through a cousin of Isabel, who quarrelled with James II about the Earldom. His son, also named
John, recovered the Mar estates, alienated by the Crown during the long period that his family had been out of possession. John, the 23rd (or 6th Earl counting from 1565) was attainted for rebellion in 1716 (he was also created
Duke of Mar in the
Jacobite Peerages of Scotland and Ireland, and Earl of Mar in the Jacobite Peerage of England), and the Earldom remained forfeit for over a century.
19th century In 1824, the Earldom was restored by an act of Parliament, the '''''' (
5 Geo. 4. c. 59), to
John Francis Erskine, the heir of the attainted Earl, in his 83rd year. His grandson, the ninth Earl, successfully claimed inheritance the earldom of Kellie and associated titles in 1835. At the death of the 26th Earl of Mar and eleventh Earl of Kellie in 1866, the
Earldom of Kellie and the family's estates passed to Walter Erskine, the cousin of the late Earl, and his
heir male. Meanwhile, it was assumed that the Earldom of Mar passed to John Francis Goodeve, the late Earl's nephew, and his
heir general. Goodeve changed his name to Goodeve Erskine; his claim was agreed upon by all. He even participated in the election of
Scottish representative peers for the Peerage of Scotland. However, the Earl of Kellie submitted a petition to the
House of Lords asking that the Earldom of Mar be declared his, dying before it could be considered. His son, the thirteenth Earl of Kellie, renewed the petition, and the Lords referred it to their Committee on Privileges. The petition made a number of claims: • The original Earldom of Mar was a territorial title rather than a title of peerage and was therefore "indivisible." (In other words, the territory could not be separated from the title.) • Alexander Stewart obtained a new royal charter for the Earldom, rather than receiving it in right of his wife Isabel. • After the death of Alexander Stewart, his lands were passed to the sovereign in accordance with the charter, and thereafter were disposed of by the Crown. • As the territorial earldom was "indivisible", upon the termination of the territory, the earldom must have ended also. • Therefore, since the territorial earldom had already become non-existent, the 1565 grant was
not a revival of that title. Rather, it was a totally new creation, this time in the form of a peerage title. • Since the instrument of the 1565 grant cannot be found, the presumption ought to be that the earldom passes to heirs-male, and not to heirs-general. Thus, the Earl of Kellie is entitled to the Earldom of Mar as he is the late Earl of Mar's heir male, while John Goodeve Erskine was an heir-general. Goodeve Erskine had different ideas, however. He portrayed the Crown's takeover of the territorial earldom not as pursuant to a charter, but rather as an act of tyranny. He argued: • James I, in a tyrannical act, seized the lands of Alexander Stewart, when these should have passed to Robert, Lord Erskine. • The "true" earls never agreed to terminate their claim to the earldom. • The 1565 grant was a restitution of the old territorial earldom rather than a new creation. • Because the title is a restoration of a territorial earldom, and because the territorial earldom could pass to heirs-general, John Goodeve Erskine was the rightful heir, being the late Earl of Mar's heir-general. The House of Lords Committee on Privileges ruled in 1875, to the dissatisfaction of many, that the Earldom of Mar was newly created in 1565, passed only to heirs-male, and therefore belonged to the Earl of Kellie, and not to Goodeve Erskine. The
Lord Chancellor, Roundell Palmer, 1st Baron Selborne, declared it to be "final, right or wrong, and not to be questioned". However, there was a sentiment that the Lords had decided wrongly. A bill was brought to Parliament, to allow Goodeve Erskine to assume the title, and was passed without dissent. The ''''
(48 & 49 Vict. c. 48) declared that because of the doubts relating to the 1565 creation, it would be assumed that there are two'' Earldoms of Mar. The Earldom created in 1565 would be held by the Earl of Kellie. The ancient earldom, however, was declared to be still in existence, and was given to John Goodeve Erskine. For the purposes of
precedence, it is assumed that the earldom held by Goodeve Erskine's heirs was created in 1404. == Titleholders ==