General Notes

Name Suffix:<NSFX> 5th Earl of Sutherland
WILLIAM (SUTHERLAND), EARL OF SUTHERLAND [SCT], elder son and heir, wasprobably already of age when he succeeded his father, 19 July 1333. Hewas with his kinsman Sir Andrew Moray, 3rd of Bothwell (then Regent), incompany with Duncan, 8th Earl of Fife [SCT] and Patrick, 8th Earl ofDunbar and 2nd Earl of March [SCT], at the unsuccessful siege of theCastle of Cupar-Fife, which began in January 1335/6. In 1340, whileEdward III was engaged in besieging Tournai (23 July to 25 September), hetook part with the Earl of Dunbar and March in a particularly devastingraid into Northumberland, during the return from which they were engagedby Sir Thomas Gray of Heton. On 2 June 1341 King David II with hisConsort Queen Joan (sister of King Edward III) landed at Inverbervie inKincardineshire and took Earl William IV into such high favour that on 1December 1342, at the King's request, Pope Clement VI granted adispensation for the marriage, although "related to each other in thefourth degree of consanguinity," of the Earl of Sutherland and thePrincess Margaret, the King's sister of the whole blood. On 28 September1345 the King conferred various thanages and other lands on the Earl andhis wife, with remainder to their issue, failing which all the lands wereto revert to the Crown. A fortnight later, 10 October 1345, the Earldomof Sutherland was erected into a Regality with a similar limitation; on 4November the King gave the Earl the barony of Cluny in Aberdeenshire; andon 30 March 1346 the Earl and his wife Margaret received a grant of theKing's Crag of Dunnottar, in Kincardineshire, with permission tore-fortify it. According to Froissart Earl William IV was among the firstto arrive at Perth in the autumn of 1346 for the invasion of England andwas with the King in the 4th line at the Battle of Neville's Cross, wherethe Scots were defeated, 17 October 1346. Earl William is said, like KingDavid II, to have been taken prisoner; but if so he was, like Malcolm(Fleming), 1st Earl of Wigtown, another prisoner, able to escape toScotland. In June 1351 he had a safe-conduct to go to Newcastle tonegotiate about the ransome of King David II, and when that monarch wasallowed to visit Scotland on parole for a few months, the Earl's infantson John, Master of Sutherland, was one of the hostages for his return, 5September 1351. On 3 October 1357, in accordance with the Treaty ofBerwick, the Earl himself and his eldest son went to England as hostagesfor the payment of the King's ransom of 100,000 merks, and were lodged bythe Chancellor, William Edington, Bishop of Winchester. During the nextten years the Earl was often allowed to return to Scotland and inDecember 1363 had permission for himself and his wife to go on pilgrimageto Canterbury. During his absence in England the King on 28 February1358/9 granted him and his eldest son the barony and castle of Urquhart,in Inverness-shire, and later paid him £80 towards his expenses inEngland in addition to various sums from the Exchequer. The Earl issupposed to have been released soon after 20 March 1366/7, when he andhis wife had a safeconduct to return to England from a visit to Scotlandon parole. Although so long away from home he was involved in a feud withhis neighbour in Strathnaver, lye MacDonald Mackay, and when the mattersin dispute were brought before a court assembled at Dingwall in 1370, theEarl's brother, Nicholas Sutherland of Torboll, murdered Iye and hiselder son Donald. It has been suggested that the death of Earl WilliamIV, who was still alive on 27 February 1369/70, may have been the resultof revenge for this murder. He married, 1stly (dispensation 1 December1342), between 3 August and 28 September 1345, Margaret, daughter ofROBERT I, KING OF SCOTLAND, by his 2nd wife, Elizabeth, daughter ofRichard (DE BURGH), 2nd EARL OF ULSTER [IRL]. She died, it is said inchildbirth, after 30 March 1346. He married, 2ndly (post-nuptialdispensation 9 November 1347), Joan,