Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

RESTOKATIOX OF KING ClIAULES THE SECOKD, 16G0. ccxxxi
Earl of llai'tfell was well advised by the ablest feudal lawyers of the day.
The step was no hasty or ill-considered one, but carefully advised ofter long
consultation with the learned lawyers. K"o trace of any charter by Cromwell
following upon the resignation of 1G57 has been found, either in the liogister
of Scotch Charters granted by him, or otherwise. Even if Cromwell had
made a grant to the Earl of Hartfell of his peerages and estates to a different
class of heirs than to those of his own body mentioned in the resignation,
King Charles the Second would have disregarded such a grant as inconsistent
with the bounty and generosity shown by him in his own patent and crown
charter of the old and new peerages and estates.
Tlie commonwealth of Cromwell, which had been maintained by his ovi^n
firm hand, soon crumbled to pieces under the feebler protectorate of his son,
Eichard. The restoration of King Cliarles the Second took place on 29th
May IGGO, and many of his loyal subjects, including the Earl of Hartfell,
who bad suflered for the royal cause by fines and imprisonment, had their
sufferings and loyalty considered under the restored sovereign.
The king entered London amid great demonstrations of joy upon the part
of the people on 29th May. The Earl of Hartfell evidently joined in the
general rejoicing, as he was in London from the 2Sth May to the 12th July
1660, as appears from the following entry in the account of his chamberlain :
" Item, to my lord at his gocing to London, and sent to him since betuixt the
28th of May and the 12th of July (GO), as anc syde of my paper in my book
of chairge doeth clearly instruct, £3-166, 13s. 8d."i
The restored monarch soon conferred upon'thc Earl of Hartfell substantial
marks of his royal favour. On 13th February 1661 he bestowed upon him
the three new peerages of Earl of Annandale, Viscount Annand, and Lord
Lochmaben, Even so early as July of the previous year, only two months
after his restoration, the king mu.st have notified to the earl his intention
' Accounts iu Annaudalo Chatter-chest.
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