The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. V] OF SCOTLAND 271
be doubted, the origin of these earls is a matter of greater
difficulty.
The ancient earls of this district have not been fortunate
enough to escape the grasp of the modern antiquaries, and
they alone of the native earls of Scotland have had a foreign
orisrin assigned to them. The first of the earls of Lennox who
appears on record is Aluin comes de Levenax, who is mentioned
in the early part of the thirteenth century, and from this Aluin
there can be no doubt whatever that the later earls of Lennox
were descended. It unfortunately happens, however, that an
Aluin Macarchill witnesses a number of charters in the reign
of David I., and that in the previous century Ordericus Vitalis,
a Saxon writer, had mentioned the flight of a Northumbrian
nobleman named :\rchillus into Scotland, in consequence of
the succe.ss of William the Conqueror, and although constant
tradition asserts the earls of Lennox to be of native origin,
this fact was sufficient for our Saxonizing antiquaries unani-
mously
to instal Archillus of Northumberland as the founder
of the ancient earls of Lennox. ^ There are two facts, however,
which materiall)' interfere with this arrangement. First, several