Patrick Stewart, the Earl of Orkney, was a cousin of King James the Sixth of Scotland and First of England - a monarchy created y the Union of the Crowns of both countries in 1603. Earl Patrick was a cousin of the King because Patrick's father was one of the many illegitimate children of James the Fifth. Patrick is still remembered in the history of the Orkney Islands as "Black Pate", a man of kingly ideas away beyond his status in the nobility who created a kingdom of his own in the Orkney Islands with his own set of rules and regulations 300 miles from the royal residence in Scotland at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh and 700 miles from the Court of St. James in London.

In an atmosphere of tyranny and extortion, he laid charges of high treason against some of the aristocratic families in Orkney and then tried them in his court....

To continue this story read further in May 2007's Scotian.