Otherwise his son David
could not have succeeded to any part of Caithness, as he undoubtedly
did, when, four years later, in 1206, his father's long and chequered
career of sixty-eight years in the earldom was closed by his death at
the age of seventy-three.
Ugly of countenance, but of great bodily strength and stature, crafty,
self-seeking, treacherous and wholly unscrupulous, he is still known
in the North as "the wicked Earl Harold," yet the Saga classes him
with Sigurd Eysteinsson and Thorfinn Sigurdson as one of the three
greatest of the Jarls and Earls of Orkney and Caithness.
On the mainland, no new earldom north of the Oykel was conferred on
anyone for a further period of thirty years. It was, in fact, neither
the policy nor, save in very exceptional cases, the practice of the
Scottish kings to grant earldoms to men with powerful followings
and vast territories;[51] for these made them, especially in remote
situations, almost independent rulers, and dangerous enemies, and it
was undesirable to increase their importance by additional dignities.
It was, on the contrary, usual by charter to create barons and other
military tenants, who should hold their lands, described in their
charters, by military service, in male succession direct from the
Scottish Crown, and liable to forfeiture for disloyal conduct.
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