Our navigation bar is loading . . .

 


 

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries

Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997.  




 

JCSM's Top 1000 Christian Sites - Free Traffic Sharing Service!


Do you need volunteer, community service, work, military or court hours?

Click here and add this page to your favorites!

Return to the JCSM Study Center!

Encyclopedia Britannica



ORKNEY, EARL OF

This article appears in Volume V20, Page 279 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ORC-PAI
ORKNEY, EARL OF , a Scottish title held at different periods by various families, including its present possessors the Fitzmaurices. The Orkney Islands (q.v.) were ruled by jarls or earls under the supremacy of the kings of Norway from very early times to about 136o, many of these jarls being also earls of Caithness under the supremacy of the Scottish kings. Perhaps the most prominent of them were a certain Paul (d. 1099) who assisted the
Norwegian
  king, Harald III. Haardraada, when he invaded England in 1o66; and his grandson Paul the Silent, who built, at least in part, the cathedral of St Magnus at Kirkwall. They were related to the royal families ofScotland and Norway.
In its more modern sense the earldom
dates
  from about 138o, and the first family to hold it was that of Sinclair, Sir
Henry
  Sinclair (d. c. 1400) of Roslin, near Edinburgh, being recognized as
earl
  by the king of Norway. Sir
Henry
  was the son of Sir William Sinclair, who was killed by the Saracens whilst accompanying Sir James Douglas, the bearer of the Bruce's heart, to Palestine in 1330, and on the maternal side was the grandson of Malise, who called himself
earl
  of Strathearn, Caithness and Orkney. He ruled the islands almost like a king, and employed in his service the Venetian travellers Nicolo and Antonio Zeno. His son Henry (d. 1418) was admiral of
Scotland
  and was taken prisoner by the English in 1406, together with Prince James, afterwards King James I.; his grandson William, the 3rd earl (c. 14041480), was chancellor of
Scotland
  and took some part in public affairs. In 1455 William was created earl of Caithness, and in 1470 he resigned his earldom of Orkney to James III. of Scotland, who had just acquired the sovereignty of these islands through his
marriage
  with Margaret, daughter of Christian I., king of Denmark and Norway. In 1567 Queen Mary's lover, James
Hepburn
 , earl of Bothwell, was created duke of Orkney, and in 1581 her half-brother Robert Stewart (d. 1592), an illegitimate son of James V., was made earl of Orkney. Robert, who was abbot of Holyrood, joined the party of the reformers and was afterwards one of the principal enemies of the regent Morton. His son Patrick acted in a very arbitrary manner in the Orkneys, where he set the royal authority at defiance; in 1609 he was seized and imprisoned, and, after his bastard son Robert had suffered death for heading a rebellion, he himself was executed in February 1614, when his honours and estates were forfeited.
In 1696 Lord George Hamilton was created earl of Orkney (see below). He married Elizabeth Villiers (see below), and he was succeeded by his daughter Anne (d. 1756), the wife of
William O'Brien, 4th earl of Inchiquin. Anne's daughter Mary (e. 17211791) and her granddaughter Mary (17551831) were both countesses of Orkney in their own right; the younger Mary married
Thomas
  Fitzmaurice (17421793), son of John Petty, earl of Shelburne, and was succeeded in the title by her grandson,
Thomas
  John Hamilton Fitzmaurice (18031877), whose descendants still hold the earldom.


End of Article: ORKNEY, EARL OF


If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/ORC_PAI/ORKNEY_EARL_OF.html">
ORKNEY, EARL OF
</a>


(Previous)
ORKNEY ISLANDS
(Next)
ORKNEY, ELIZABETH HAMILTON, COUNTESS OF



 
 


JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA  92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email

JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Copyright © 1997-2012.
 

 

Sponsored Advertisements

Online First Aid and CPR Certification  .  DHA Solutions  .  PB Happy Hour Specials  .  Improvising Made Easy For Guitar and Bass  .  The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained  .  Home Equity Loans  .  First Aid and CPR Online  .  San Diego Music Lessons  .  10,000 Wise Quotes and Spiritual Sayings  .  Blow Up Your Site (For Free!)  .  San Diego DUI Lawyers  .  Jason Gastrich  .  Jordan Faith Gastrich  .  Divorce Secrets Revealed  .  Post Your Ad Link Free  .  San Diego Soccer Training  .  JCSM  .  Download Sermons  .  Custom Religious Banners, Build A Sign  .  Christian Singles Dating  .  Christian T-Shirts  .  Healing Christian Prayer  .  Bumper Authority  .  Personalized Blogs and Email  .  San Diego Haircuts  .  The Do the Math Diet  .  Stop Twitter Spam  .  Christian Conservative Work at Home Network  .  The Website of the Lord