the converse is true,
and that Johanna was no daughter of John, and that it was the Erlend
half of the Caithness earldom lands that went to her and her husband
Freskin de Moravia of Duffus, while the moiety of Paul, in our
opinion, remained with a nameless daughter of John, and went along
with the title of Earl of Caithness, to her husband Magnus, and so to
the Angus earls of Caithness, though the lands which went with it were
then much curtailed in extent.

But it must be remembered that, in the absence of records, any
solution of this difficult problem at present rests on mere
speculation and guesswork, and the opinions expressed here must
be accepted as mere conjectures unsupported by direct contemporary
evidence, and based only upon reasonable probability.

We propose to attempt to deal with this difficult subject in the next
chapter.

CHAPTER IX.

_The Succession to the Caithness Earldom._

After the death of Earl John in 1231, we come to a most perplexing
time, and it is almost impossible to discover a way out of the maze
of genealogical difficulties in which we find ourselves involved. Not
only is there no chronicle of the period, but there are hardly any
records at all to help us. The pedigree of the descendants of Earl
Harold Maddadson, and particularly of his daughters, who are named in
the _Orkneyinga Saga_, ceases;[1] and that of Earl John's family and
of Harald Ungi and his sisters downwards stops also, save in the case
of Ragnhild, the youngest of them, whose son Snaekoll Gunni's son
is mentioned as claimant in 1231 from Earl John of certain lands in
Orkney and in Caithness as well.

Attempts to clear up the mystery have been made,[2] but none of them
have resulted in any certain or trustworthy conclusions. Nor can
anyone now expect to fare much better; for not only are authentic
pedigrees of the Caithness earls and the materials for framing them
undiscovered or non-existent, but yet another pedigree, namely that of
the Angus line, which provided, from its male members, successors to
the title and to a moiety of the Caithness earldom, is very obscure.

This chapter, therefore, is largely conjectural, and must be accepted
as such. It deserves, and will doubtless receive, severe criticism.

So far as the Angus pedigree can be ascertained, it appears that Earl
Gillebride died about 1187, leaving two sons, Adam and Gilchrist, who
succeeded in turn to that earldom, and Gillebride also left a