Michael Fergus Bowes-Lyon, 18th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne

We have just received the sad news that Michael Fergus Bowes-Lyon, 18th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne has passed away. Out thoughts go out to his friends at family at this tragic loss.  He was only 58 years old, and died after a long battle with cancer.

Known to those who knew him as ‘Mikey’ Strathmore he led a very colourful life. On one side he was one of the richest men in Scotland, first cousin to the Queen once removed, an Earl and a Lord,  then on the other, he was a family man who shunned all the ‘pomp’ because he fell in love and chose the life of running an ironmongers in the market town of Forfar.   ‘Mikey’ did not lead a boring life and his 59 years are filled with many stories that will live on forever,  a life to be celebrated.

Glamis

Strathmore and his family lived at Glamis, one of the most beautiful castles in Angus, Scotland.  Glamis has a history of Royal relatives staying here, often it was host to the ones who were a little more ‘troublesome’,  Strathmore was definitely one of these characters.  History would be boring if it wasn’t for people like him.

Mary, Dowager Countess of Strathmore

Born 7th June 1957,  Michael Fergus Bowes-Lyon was the only son of Fergus Michael Bowes-Lyon and Mary Pamela McCorquodale.  He also had two sisters; Lady Elizabeth Leeming and Lady Diana Godfrey-Faussett.  His Mother Mary has the title The Dowager Countess of Strathmore.  Mary still moved from Glamis to the Borders, she is well known within the community especially when she spearhead a campaign to stop the closure of Glamis Post Office.

He attended Sunningdale School, Eton, then on to the University of Aberdeen and finally in true Royal tradition, RMA Sandhurst.  On finishing at Sandhurst he rose to the rank of Captain in the British Army (serving with the Scots Guards).  He was very well liked by the men, especially for his jokes.

Strathmore qualified as a stockbroker in the City of London then joined the Whips Office in The House of Lords.  He was styled Lord Glamis between 1972 and 1987 where he was a hereditary peer and politician.  His son Simon now holds this title.

He succeeded his father as the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne in 1987 after his father died on August 18th – also a young death at just 59 years.  It was reported that Fergus died while while out shooting accompanied by his son  and a friend when he just collapsed.  His death came as a big shock.

Strathmore’s grandfather Fergus Bowes-Lyon was killed during WW1 fighting with The Black Watch at The Battle of Loos.  He was known for his heroic acts amongst them leading his men into battle near Hohenzollern Redoubt   He was the elder brother of the Queen Mother and doted on his little sister who he called ‘Buffy’.

The Lyons came to Glamis in the 14th Century after they were granted lands when Sir John Lyon married the daughter of King Robert II.  Strathmore’s father Fergus inherited Glamis in 1972, along with his Mother they carried out extensive work on the castle in order to make it the family home it is today. It was previously a royal hunting lodge. On the death of his father Strathmore was very active in the management of the estate, Castle and farming enterprises.

Glamis has a dark secret – back in the nineteenth century a Lyon-Bowes baby had been reported to have died but really was hidden away in Glamis because they were deformed.  Thomas Lyon-Bowes was the rightful heir to the title and property but due to his deformity he was kept in a secret chamber at Glamis and the story that he was dead was leaked out.  Thomas has no gravestone and the chamber was bricked up after his death.  There are awful stories, labelling him ‘The Monster of Glamis’  and describing him as half man half frog.  It has always been questioned how much of the story is true.

In 1984 Strathmore married Isobel Charlotte Weatherall daughter of Captain Anthony E. Weatherall  Michael and Isobel have three sons.

Jock Bowes-Lyon (John), Geordie Bowes-Lyon (George) and Lord Glamis (Simon)

They separated in 2003 and divorced in 2004.  His oldest son Simon Patrick Bowes-Lyon is Lord Glamis and heir.  His brothers are John Fergus Bowes-Lyon and  George Norman Bowes-Lyon.

At the funeral of the Queen Mother Strathmore walked behind Prince Phillip.  His sons were also there as the Queen Mother’s great-grandnephews; Simon, John and George.

On November 24, 2005 Michael married again,  Dr. Damaris E Stuart-William, a clinical psychologist  at Glamis Castle.  Michael and Damaris had one son Toby Peter Fergus Bowes-Lyon born that same year.  Then came a very hard time in his life where he publicly went ‘off the rails’ at the breakdown of his second marriage which he apologised for and confessed to a drink problem. The more lurid details of this episode I’m sure will be covered elsewhere so theres no need to dwell on them here.

His life then took a turn for the better with the help of Karen Baxter who was a financial manager of Strathmore’s companies and manageress of the Forfar ironmongers David Irons & Sons.  This long term friendship blossomed and became more intimate and the two were married in August 2012 at a low key ceremony at Glamis.  Karen, Mikey and Karen’s two daughters Chloe and Kristen all lived together as a family at Glamis.  He was said to have loved his step daughter dearly.

Strathmore had bought the ironmongers  where Karen worked known as ‘Irons’ in 2005, setting up an office on one of the floors.   It was an Aladdin’s cave of a shop that he used to visit as a child.    But when an Asda opened up near by, Mikey took a leaf from his Mothers book and protested saying it was destroying local stores.  The Irons had been running for 174 years, sadly it was forced to close in 2014.

Mikey and Karen

As a final word about the life of Mikey Strathmore I think it’s best to call on the sketch by The Two Ronnies  (Mikey was always a big fan of The Two Ronnies). You remember the scene – when the shop customer Ronnie Barker demands the shopkeeper Corbett for ‘Four Candles’ but really wants a ‘fork ‘andles’.  A great sketch that always got a laugh and Mikey Strathmore was a man always smiling.

Mikey outside his Iron Mongers – photo from The Daily Mail

The post The sad loss of the Earl of Stathmore and a celebration of his life appeared first on ScotClans | Scottish Clans.

The original tower keep of the castle, which still remains at the centre of the building, was built in the 14th century. The additional wings, towers and turrets were added over the centuries to make the castle into the majestic building it is today, a place with more in common with a French Chateau than a medieval fortress.

It also has a rather sinister reputation as one of the most haunted places in Scotland, if not the British Isles, which is what we will be exploring in this weeks Friday Facts…

One of the most notorious characters in the castle’s history was Earl Beardie, the most famous tale of him involves cards, the Devil, and a soul damned to hell.

One Sunday, Earl Beardie was guesting at the castle. After a heavy drinking session with the Earl of Glamis, on his way back to his room the Earl was said to have been shouting and screaming for a partner to play him at cards and wager some coin. Being the Sabbath no one was willing to play with the Earl, let alone gamble. The Earl raged on, going so far as to say he would play the Devil himself. Inevitably there came a knock at the door, and stood in the entrance was a tall man, dressed head to toe in the finest black clothes. The man claimed to have heard the Earls shouts for a partner on his way passed the castle, and enquired as to whether he still required a partner. The drunken Earl was blind to the sinister nature of this stranger and agreed to a game. The two men retired to a room in the castle, slamming the door shut and locking the castle staff and anyone else out.

All was quiet for a spell, not a sound coming from the room, when out of nowhere the door swung open and out strode the Earl. Screaming and swearing the Earl made his way back to his room, complaining at his luck and the loss in the game. Of the dark man there was no sign, he had seemingly vanished from the castle.

What went on in the room nobody will ever know, but it is believed the dark man was the Devil himself and he offered Earl Beardie an interesting wager that he could not refuse. A bag of the finest rubies was offered up if the Earl should win, but if he should lose it was his eternal soul that must be given over.

The ghost of Earl Beardie is said to now haunt the castle and has been heard on numerous occasions, stamping has feet and swearing at “something” in the room in which he is said to have gambled at Glamis.

The ghost of a woman with no tongue is said to roam the castle grounds, gesturing wildly towards her mutilated face. Unfortunately there is no information that might lead to finding out who this woman was and what her story might be.

Another famous story about the castle that has intrigued many is that of the monster of Glamis. Legend has it that in 1821 Thomas, a son and heir to the Bowes-Lyon family name and fortune, was born in Glamis. However he was so horribly deformed that the family announced that the baby had been lost. Still loving the child that had come to them but fearing what people may think of the ‘monster’, they hid him away from the world in a secret chamber somewhere within the castle.

It is claimed only a select few of the most trusted servants were made aware of this secret so the monster could be taken care of. The creature was said to be taken out late in the night to be given some form of exercise in the form of a walk along the battlements, earning a section the name ‘Mad Earls Walk’, and that he was fed through a grill in his door by these trusted servants.

The monster is believed to have lived much longer than any normal person, living on until the early 1920′s and meaning the family ‘secret’ had to be kept secret for several generations. The tale goes that the truth about the creature is revealed to the next heir of the Bowes-Lyon family when they come of age at 21. Observations of the 13th Earl of Strathmore are supposed to support this theory. He was said to be a kind, conscientious man of a generally sunny disposition, but this all changed with the passing of his brother. Without an heir he became the next in line and the secret would have been revealed to him. From then on he was noted to have become a very serious man, who always seemed to have a great sadness hanging over him. Although this could have been from the burden of the secret it is far more likely to have been due to the loss of his brother and the hardships of becoming the head of the family.

An alternative version of the legend is that to every generation of the family a vampire child is born and is walled up in that room.

There is an old story that guests staying at Glamis once hung towels from the windows of every room in a bid to find the bricked-up suite of the monster. When they looked at it from outside, several windows were apparently towel-less, leading people to believe there was more than one secret room within the castle.

The legend of the monster may have been inspired by the true story of the Ogilvies. Somewhere in the 16-foot-thick walls is the famous room of skulls, where the Ogilvie family, who sought protection from their enemies the Lindsays, were walled up to die of starvation.

Another legend has it that the late Sir David Bowes-Lyon, uncle of Queen Elizabeth II, took a late stroll on the lawn after dinner, and reportedly saw a girl gripping the bars of a castle window and staring distractedly into the night. He was about to speak to her when she abruptly disappeared, as if someone had torn her away from the window.

The family chapel is said to be haunted by the Grey Lady, believed to have been Lady Janet Douglas, burned at the stake on charges of witchcraft and plotting to poison the King.

King James V had Janet accused of witchcraft against him, although it was clear that the accusations were false. She was imprisoned with her husband (who escaped but was later killed) in a dungeon of Edinburgh Castle. It was easy for James to imprison Janet, but actually convicting her was more difficult. Her character was impeccable, without blemish, and she was very much respected by everyone who knew her. In order to get the testimony he needed to convict her, the King resorted to torture. Her clansmen and servants were put on the rack and stretched to the point of agony. They finally gave false evidence against her. Janet was convicted and burned at the stake on 17 July 1537 on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle, which her young son was forced to watch alongside a silent and morose crowd, very likely aware of the innocent women being burned before them.

Sightings have been made in recent times within the chapel and above the clock tower.

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I’d like to continue by reproducing Alaistair Moffat’s reading given at St Giles. It was an excellent account of the battle and the aftermath.

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FLODDEN ADDRESS. – ALISTAIR MOFFAT

When dawn broke on the morning of 10th September, 1513, the landscape of hell was revealed. On the gently undulating northern ridges of Branxton Hill more than 10,000 men lay dead or dying. In the midst of the carnage were the naked, plundered bodies of King James IV of Scotland, his half-brother, Alexander Stewart, Archbishop of St Andrews, George Hepburn, Bishop of the Isles, two abbots, nine great earls of Scotland, fourteen lords of parliament, innumerable knights and noblemen of lesser degree and many thousands of farmers, ploughmen, weavers and burgesses. It was the appalling aftermath of the battle of Flodden, the greatest military disaster in Scotland’s history.

In the grey light of that terrible dawn, sentries posted around the captured Scottish cannon could make out where the brunt of battle had been joined. Below them, at the foot of the slope ran the trickle of a nameless burn now choked with slaughter, a wrack of mangled bodies, broken pikeshafts, shattered shields and everywhere blood and the sickening stench of death, vomit and voided bowels. Not all of the bodies were yet corpses. Through a long dark night the battlefield had not been a silent graveyard. Trapped under lifeless comrades, crippled, hamstrung or horribly mutilated, fatally wounded men still breathed. Bladed weapons rarely kill outright and they were often used to bludgeon men to their knees or into unconsciousness. In the churned mud of the battlefield some men will have lost their footing, fallen and been hacked at before they could get up. Many bled to death, maimed, lacerated by vicious cuts, screaming, fainting and screaming once more in their death agonies. Some will have been put out of their misery by parties of English soldiers scouring the field by torchlight for plunder, stripping the bodies, ransacking them for valuables. But other men will have lingered on in

unspeakable pain, praying to their God, passing in and out of consciousness, slowly bleeding to death. The fury of the battle on Flodden field may have been stilled and awash with death and defeat. But all was not yet over. In an instant the plunderers and scavengers looked up and the sentries by the cannon stood to, frantically peering through the morning light. They could hear the rumbling thunder of hoofbeats – and then, suddenly, riders erupted over Barelees Rig. With 800 horsemen at his back, Lord Alexander Home galloped hard across the horrors of the battlefield and up the slopes of Branxton Hill. They had not come back to Flodden to rejoin a lost battle but to rescue their captured ordnance. And they very nearly succeeded. After a sharp skirmish, the English gunners managed to load and get off a volley at Home’s squadron, and they scattered.

And so it ended. As the Border horsemen wheeled round and raced out of range, the remnants of the shattered Scottish army were limping across the Tweed at Coldstream. There was no organised pursuit. The victorious English army had taken heavy casualties and the Earl of Surrey and his captains were exhausted. In any event, their bloody work was done. The floors o’ the Forest were a’ wede awa, Flodden was a national disaster, a harbinger of lawlessness in the shape of the Border Reivers, the beginning of a long period of political uncertainty and the last medieval battle in the history of Britain. The last time a king was to die leading his army.

It was also an epic. As two huge armies mustered and marched into history, extraordinary scenes had been witnessed. At Ellemford, high in the Lammermuirs above Duns, where sheep now graze on the flanks of the hills, where buzzards hang in the updrafts and an elegant bridge crosses the Whiteadder, King James IV and his army camped. Huge guns were trundled down the hill trails, dragged by oxen, and by 21st August 1513, almost 30,000 men had massed in this beautiful, now lonely valley. Two days later, the largest force ever to leave Scotland crossed the Tweed at the fords below Coldstream. They had declared war, they had entered the realm of the Tudors, of the ferociously ambitious and bull-like Henry VIII.

Meanwhile Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, and the Bishop of Durham carried the standard of St Cuthbert before their battle-hardened troops. In front of the high altar of the great cathedral, Howard had watched the bishop bless the flag of the Haliwerfolc. The lands of Palatinate, of the Prince-Bishops of Durham, reached to the Tweed and beyond, and in an early definition of Englishness, their people were known as the Holy Man’s Folk, the Haliwerfolc. Ancient allegiances were being roused and summoned.

Between 2nd and 9th September two vast armies circled each other in a small corner of North Northumberland, like heavyweight boxers looking for weaknesses or waiting for wrong moves. After the Earl of Surrey had despatched a herald, the Rouge Croix, it was finally agreed that battle would be joined on 9th September. Supplies for almost 70,000 men, horses and camp followers were running dangerously low

and neither army could remain in the field much longer.

Realising the strength of the Scots’ entrenched position, Surrey led his men to the east, skirting Flodden Edge and staying out of artillery range. On the morning of the appointed day, he crossed the River Till and took up a position to the north of James IV’s army, barring any retreat to Scotland. And then, on a damp afternoon, the greatest battle ever fought between England and Scotland began.

On the left wing of the Scottish host, the Highlanders led by the Earl of Huntly massed in formation with Lord Home’s Borderers, and in the moments before their chiefs roared the claideamh mor, the order to charge, the Gaelic-speaking warriors did something remarkable. They began to summon the army of the dead. They began the sloinneadh, the naming of the names of memory. To bolster his courage, each man began to recite his genealogy. Many waiting to charge could go back 20 generations. As if they were offering up the murmur of prayer, each man remembered why he had come to fight. Is mise mac Iain, mac Ruaridh, mac Domhnuill. I am the son of John, the son of Roderick, the son of Donald. And once their quiet voices stilled, the roar of the claideamh mor rent the air and they broke into the charge. With their broadswords and Lochaber axes, the Highlanders tore into the English ranks, the division led by Edmund Howard, They scattered and a rout was only prevented when Lord Dacre rode to the rescue with his English Borderers. As history rumbled across Branxton Hill, fortune appeared to be smiling on the Scots.

At the same time, James IV was about to make a catastrophic decision, a crucial error of judgement. Instead of occupying an elevated position at the rear of his vast army, he chose to lead from the front. His division raced down Branxton Hill and as they reached the lower slopes and much softer ground, many men began to skid and lose their footing. This unsteadiness made it very difficult for them to control their long, 12 foot pikes. The wet ground made them charge out of formation, only engaging piecemeal with the solidly planted ranks of English billmen, With their shorter, more easily handled bills, they began to slice into James IV’s division. And as the men at the back saw the Scottish pikes go down, they hesitated and many of them ran, believing their king to be killed. By leading from the front, James was immediately submerged in the ruck of the fighting, only able to see what was directly in front of him, in no position to direct his forces. The result was disaster.

The legacy of Flodden was most immediately and keenly felt in the Borders. North of the Tweed the memory of the battle is kept alive in the fabric of the midsummer common ridings. At Selkirk the ceremony of the casting of the colours is unique in Britain and it is based on the return of a soldier known as Fletcher, traditionally believed to have been the only one of sixty from the town to return. In his bloodied hand he held aloft, in a gesture of desolate defiance, a flag captured from the men of Macclesfield in Cheshire. Many Englishmen had fought and fallen at Flodden. And passions still run high. When the Mayor of Macclesfield recently wrote to the Provost of Selkirk asking for the return of the flag, he was told that he would need to come to the Borders and take it.

Flodden is an immense story. Like Culloden in 1746, it signalled the end of a fading, feudal Scotland.  And it also ushered in a century of lawlessness, the criminal society controlled by the appalling Border Reivers. Across Europe, renaissance, enlightenment and the reformation were changing lives, forming new ideas and creating the institutions of the modern world. In the first half of the 16th century, central authority broke down in a leaderless nation, and while swords and spears spoke in Scotland, the law was often silent.

What is to be learned from all of that suffering and slaughter, from all of those ancient enmities? First that they are ancient and must remain firmly in the past. In 2014 Scotland faces a historic choice and whichever way the people of Scotland vote, it must be a signal lesson of Flodden that enmity, even ancient enmity can have no part. And it is to the credit of politicians on all sides of the argument that it has not reared an ugly head. But it might.

And alongside that it mustmbe important to remember, to understand the visceral, bloody realities of whatmwent on on that terrible day 500 years ago. Lest we forget, Flodden should become a place of remembrance and of pilgrimage, a place where the uncomfortable lessons of history can be learned and never forgotten.

Two weeks ago, on one of the countless beautiful evenings of this glorious summer, I drove over to Branxton. As the sun threw long shadows across the gently undulating fields, I tried to imagine the 10th of September, 1513, the distant roar of thousands of men, the screams, the fear and feral closeness of hand-to-hand fighting when

men can smell the breath, smell the sweat of men grunting pushing, hacking, swearing at them, trying to kill them. In a Gaelic phrase, I tried to listen for the music of the thing as it happened. I tried to listen to the slow, sad music of our history. I hope that many in Scotland and England hear it too.

Prior to the sir Malcolm MacGregor (who has admitted that try as he might he can not find a single MacGregor involved in the battle) researched the casualty lists. The following names are clans and families who are known to have fought at Flodden along with notable people who fell in the battle:

From the Highland Clans: 

Campbell, Erskine, Fraser, Gordon, Graham, Guthrie, Haldane, Hay, Keith, Leslie, Lindsay, Macaulay, Macfarlane, Mackay, Maclean, Macnab, Menteith, Moncreiff, Moray, Murray, Ogilvy, Oliphant, Ramsay, Rattray, Ross, Ruthven, Seton, Sinclair, Stewart, Forbes, Forsyth, Grant, MacKenzie, MacNaughton, Ross, Skene, Buchanan Of Leny, MacDonald

The Lowland and Border Clans and Families:

Adair, Abercromby, Adam, Anstruther, Baillie, Baird, Balfour, Barclay, Blackadder, Bonar, Boswell, Carnegie, Cathcart, Cleland, Cockburn, Colville, Craig, Crauford, Crichton, Cunningham, Dunbar, Dundas, Edmonstone Of Duntreath, Elphinstone, Fotheringham, Gray, Grierson, Haig, St.Clair Of Roslin, Henderson, Hepburne, Herries, Home, Hoppringle, Houston, Lauder, Liddel, Lockhart, Lumsden, Lyon, Masterson, Maitland, Maule, Maxtone, Maxwell, Melville, Muirhead, Mure, Napier, Rollo, Sempill, Somerville, Spottiswood, Stewart Of Traquair, Allardice, Ballingall, Kerr, Colville, Crammond, Eliott, Ferguson, Fleming, Foreman (Standard Bearer), Inche, Inglis, Johnstone, Kirkcaldy, Knolis, Logan, Montgomery, Morton, Muir, Nelson Of Madinpap, Otterbrun, Pitcarin, Pringle, Reid, Rorison, Savage, Scott, Seton, Tunstall, Vallanche, Wood Of Raik, Kennedy, Douglas, Hamilton, Livingstone, Wemyss, Wallace, MacLellan, MacCulloch, MacDowall

Chief Or Notable Head Of House/Family

King James IV, Archbishop Of St.Andrews (King’s Son), Earl Of Morton ( Grandson Of James 1), Earl Of Glencairn, Douglas Of Drumlanrig, Sir James Dunbar, Dundas, Lord Elphinstone, Lord Erskine, Earl Of Huntly, Earl Of Montrose, Sir Alexander Guthrie, Haig Of Bemersyde, Haldane Of Gleneagles, Earl Of Errol, Earl Of Bothwell, Sir William Keith, Earl Of Cassilis, Earl Of Rothes, Earl Of Crawford, MacDowal, Earl Of Garthland, MacFarlane Of Arrochar, Hector MacLean Of Duart, Maxwell Lord Of Carlaverock, Sir John Moncreiffe Of That Ilk, Moray Of Abercairney, Ramsay Of Dalhousie, Rattray Of That Ilk, Rollo Of Duncrub, Master Of Ruthven, Lord Sempill, Lord Seton, Earl Of Caithness, Earl Of Atholl, Earl Of Lennox, Lord Darnley, Master Of Angus, Anstruther Of That Ilk, Ballingall Of That Ilk, Master Of Eliott, Lord Forbes, Master Of Lovat, Sir Alexander Gordon Of Lochinvar, Sir Alexander Gordon Of Knockenshene, Grant Of Freuchie, John Henderson Of Fordell, Lord Alexander Home, Sir Patrick Houston Of That Ilk, William Johnstone Of That Ilk, Lord Keith, Lord Lorn, Lyon (Sons Of Lord Glamis), MacKenzie Of Kintail, Sir Alexander MacNaughton Of That Ilk, Andrew Pitcairn Of Pitcairn And 7 Sons, Lord Ross, William Ruthven Of That Ilk, Sir Walter Scott Of Buccleuch, Alexander Skene Of That Ilk, Sir David Wemyss, Earl Of Argyll, Lord Kinnaird, Master Of Cathcart, MacDonald Of Lochalsh.

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The St Giles Service…

Just over 40 clan chiefs  attended the St Giles service. At the end of the service they mustered for a photograph on the steps. To help you identify who was there we have been given a sketch with a key to the names:

1. Sir Walter Riddell of Riddell 2. The Hon. Elizabeth Fairbairn 3. Madam Pauline Hunter of Hunterston 4. Sir David Bannerman of Elsick 5. Lord Polwarth 6. Andrew Wallace Younger of that Ilk 7. Andrew Dewar Durie of Durie CBE 8. Michael Ancram, Marquess of Lothian 9. Andrew MacThomas of Finegand 10. Earl of Dundee 11. David Campbell of Strachur 12. Roderick Macneil of Barra 13. Sir James McGrigor 14. Earl of Eglinton and Winton 15. Professor David Hannay of Kirkdale and of that Ilk 16. Henry Trotter Younger of Charterhall 17. John MacArthur of that Ilk 18. Duncan Paisley of Westerlea 19. Richard Carmichael of Carmichael 20. Earl of Caithness21. Earl of Lauderdale 22. The Hon. Alexander Leslie 23. Earl of Erroll  24. Lord Napier and Ettrick 25. Madam Arabella Kincaid of Kincaid 26. David Cranstoun of that Ilk 27. Jamie Macnab of Macnab 28. Earl of Wemyss and March 29. Sir Crispin Agnew of Lochnaw  30. The Hon. Kate Nicolson 31. Duke of Montrose 32. The Hon. Peregrine Moncreiffe of that Ilk 33. Martin Haldane of Gleneagles 34.  Lord Sempill 35.  Andrew Marjoribanks of that Ilk 36. Donald MacLaren of MacLaren  37.  Duke of Hamilton 38. Field Marshal the Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank 39. Isla St Clair 40. Marquess of Ailsa 41. Madam Margaret Eliott of Redheugh 42. Sir Malcolm MacGregor of MacGregor 43. Lord Macdonald of Macdonald 44.  Richard Oliphant of that Ilk

This image will help you identify the chiefs:

The post The Flodden 500 Service at St Giles, Edinburgh. appeared first on ScotClans | Scottish Clans.

Gordon Casely, a heritage consultant in Aberdeen, has inadvertently discovered that Prince William was a direct descendant of a 17th century Middleton from the small town of Luthermuir in south Aberdeenshire.

Mr Casely was trying to discover if William’s soon-to-be wife Kate Middleton had Scottish ancestry, when he came across John Middleton, the son of a laird from the parish of Luthermuir, whose daughter, Lady Helen Middleton, went on to marry Patrick Lyon, 3rd Earl of Kinghorne, in 1662, a direct ancestor of the Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, William’s great grandmother.

John ‘Jock’ Middleton was born to Robert Middleton of Caldhame and his wife Elizabeth Strachan, around 1608. Middleton joined the army at the age of 13, and steadily rose through the ranks becoming lieutenant-general by the age of 32 and later commander of the Covenanting forces in Scotland in 1646. However, two years later he joined the Royalist forces, and by 1660 he was Charles II’s commissioner to the Scottish Parliament at the Restoration. John Middleton was later made Earl of Middleton and died in 1674. He was described as being a “hard-drinking ruffian” and died when he fell down a set of stairs whilst “befuddled with drink”.

With this revelation Prince William is now entitled to wear the Middleton tartan if he wants. Who knows, perhaps we’ll see him in a Middleton kilt tomorrow at his wedding…

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It’s interesting to see how many crest use the image of a woman within them.

Think the Urquhart crest was most definitely designed by a man.

Here are the ones I have found:

Falconer Clan Crest

Glas Clan Crest

Lyon Clan Crest

Montgomery Clan Crest

Murray Clan Crest

Ogilvie Clan Crest

Preston Clan Crest

Urquhart Clan Crest

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