of Glenesk in Angus by marriage to the
heiress of the Stirlings of Edzell. This together with their Abernethy lands in Angus
amounted to about two-thirds of the county. Sir David Lindsay was created Earl of Crawford
in 1398, and was overlord of the Highland district of Straithnairn. The Lindsays had a
fourteenth century feud with the Lyons of Glamis, and a fifteenth century feud with the
Ogilvys. Later Lindsay earls of Crawford were intimately concerned with rebellion at home
and military service abroad. The Lindsays were famous for their chivalry and their
knightly skill, and also for their patronage of distinctively Anglo-Scottish literature
and art.
In 1390 Sir David Lindsay of Glenesk,
afterwards first Earl of Crawford, as Champion of Scotland, fought a duel on London Bridge
against the English Champion, Lord Welles, having accepted a challenge issued by the
latter to all Scotsmen. This was fought before the King and Queen of England on the day of
the Feast of St. George. Lindsay defeated Lord Welles handily, yet what is more remarkable
is that he dismounted and remounted in full armor without assistance, in order to refute
an allegation that he was fastened in the saddle. In the following foot-combat, Lindsay
manfully lifted his opponent on the point of his dagger, and hurled him to the ground,
again while both knights were in full armor. Afterwords Lindsay assisted Lord Welles by
leading him gently by the hand into the presence of the King and Queen. Two years later,
as a member of a posse led by Sir Walter Ogilvy, hereditary Sheriff of Angus (ancestor of
the earls of Airlie) in pursuit of a Clann Donnachaidh (Robertson) raiding party from
Atholl, Lindsay was himself severely wounded, and the Sheriff of Angus killed, as the
result of being ambushed by the very Athollmen they were chasing. A Highlander, though
pinned to the ground at the time by Lindsay’s lance, nonetheless managed to cut him
to the bone, through his steel leg-armor, by means of a two-handed claymore.
The Livingstons descend from a Saxon named
Leving (Latin: Leuing) who settled in Scotland under David I in the early twelfth century.
He was granted the lands in Edinburgh which from him were called Levingestun. These lands
were called in early Latin Charters villa Leuing. Turstanus filius Leuig (Latin for
Leuing) granted to the monks of Hollyrood in Edinburgh the church of Leuiggestun
(Livingston) with other holdings in the reign of Malcolm IV (ca. 1155).
Sir Archibald de Levingestoune appears in
1296, while James of Leyffingstoun was Great Chamberlain of Scotland in 1456. His family
became earls of Linlithgow and Callendar, and held the ancient Thanage or Barony of
Callendar in Stirlingshire by inheritance with the native line, (one of whom, Richard
Callendar, a descendant of Eva of Lennox and Duncan de Callendar, was constable of
Stirling Castle in 1282). James Livingston of Skirling was Baron of Bid and Keeper of the
Privy Purse to King Charles I. In 1641 the King granted him a 19-year lease of the
"lands and teinds" of the bishoprics of Argyll and the Isles, followed in 1642
by a grant of the spiritualities and temporalities of the same |
