ISHR seminar – Ms Katy Jack
Our next seminar will be on Thursday 27 October (Week 7) when the presenter will be Ms Katy Jack, a doctoral research student at the University of Stirling. Katy will present ”Usurpations [and] infringements”: The Earldom of Mar in the 15th Century.
In his description of the particulars of Queen Mary’s restoration of the earldom of Mar to the Erskine family in 1565, Alexander Sinclair Lord Lindsay, earl of Crawford and Balcarres, wrote that throughout the fifteenth century, ‘by new creations’ the honor and dignity of Earl of Mar was conferred by the kings of Scotland upon princes of the royal family. ‘These creations’, he argues ‘were all usurpations or infringements against the Erskine rights of succession’. This paper seeks to contextualize these infringements by discussing the earldom of Mar in the fifteenth century, focussing on the legality of Erskine claims to Mar, the reception of these claims (both by Mar locals and the Scottish crown), and the behaviour of the Stewart kings towards the would-be earls.
The seminar will be held in the New Seminar Room, St John’s House, 71 South Street, St Andrews at 5.30pm. Drinks and nibbles will be served from 5.15pm.