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GLASSARIE WRITS 243
which so frequently occurs in old charters.' It has also been
suggested, in one instance, that Miles implied the ownership of 'a
Knight's fee, which means about b*00 acres' (Charters of Inchaffray
Abbey, p. lxxxix), a suggestion that brings one up afresh against
the misdeeds of Edward i., for among the records which he
destroyed was a
{Act. Pari. Scot., vol. i. p. 118).
' Rotulus de feodis militum continens in. pecias
It is, however, difficult to accept Skene's definition as applicable
to the thirteenth century, so far as it implies that the miles was
necessarily the sub-feuar of a baron. In the Memorandum, already
mentioned, dealing with the fines of those who absented them-
selves from the army of Alexander n. a reference is made to those
' de terris episcoporum abbatum baronum militum et thanorum
qui de rege tenent.' And in royal charters there is frequent
mention of milites nosiri. It seems plain, therefore, that while the
miles, like every other able-bodied layman in 1240, was a soldier,
he might or might not be what we call a Knight, or the owner
of a Knight's fee. He was the owner, as opposed to the tenant,
of lands. He might hold these either from the Crown or from a
subject, and what distinguished him from a baron was the different
and lower jurisdiction which he possessed.
The views expressed above appear to receive confirmation on
various points from the terms of the grant to Randolph of the
earldom of Moray (Regist. Morav., p. 34-2 ; Reg. Mag. Sig., vol.
1306-1424, App. i. No. 31). But instead of referring to this
at the different places it seemed more convenient to deal with
it as a whole.
By that charter, dated at Berwick, December 20, and 19th
year of his reign, King Robert i. conferred upon his nephew
Thomas Randolph, the comitatus of Moray. Its bounds are thus
' described : incipiendo videlicet ad aquam de Spee sicut cadit in
mare et sic ascendendo per eandem aquam includendo terras
de Fouchabre Rothenayke Rothays et de Bocharme per suas
rectas metas et divisas cum suis pertinentiis et sic ascendendo
per dictam aquam de Spee usque ad marchias de Badenache et
sic includendo omnes terras de Badenache de Kyncardene et de
Glencarny cum pertinentiis per suas rectas metas et divisas et
sic sequendo marchiam de Badenache usque marchiam de
Lochabre et sic includendo terras de Lochabre de Mamore
'