Legal framework · 2000–2004
From high justice to incorporeal property
A Lord of Regality once held high justice over his lands — the so-called “pit and gallows” power, which placed in his hands the life and death of those subject to his lordship. For centuries the dignity remained inseparable from the soil: land and honour were one.
The Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000, which came into force on 28 November 2004, recast this edifice. The dignity ceased to be attached to the land and became an “incorporeal heritable property” — a heritable incorporeal property, distinct from the landed estate and henceforth transmissible in its own right. It is under this regime that the Lordship of Regality of Slains now passes, detached from any ground, as a personal honour.
The Lord Lyon King of Arms accompanied this change. By the so-called “Lyon Blair” declaration of 17 December 2002, he announced that from 28 November 2004 he would no longer officially recognise the style of “feudal baron” nor grant baronial additaments. Yet section 62 of the 2000 Act expressly preserved his jurisdiction and prerogative: the Lord Lyon may still matriculate and grant arms to holders of baronial dignities. Scotland's sovereign heraldic authority therefore remains fully competent over the Slains title.
The baronial dignities of Scotland are recorded in the Scottish Barony Register, the reference register established to ensure their traceability after the reform. The entry of the Barony of Slains in that register, the transmissibility recognised by the 2000 Act, and the matriculation of arms by the Court of the Lord Lyon together form the threefold legal anchorage of the title.
