He was acclaimed by the citizens in an assembly at Clerkenwell, declared king by a Yorkist council, and took possession of the regality on the 4th of March.
The latter rights were afterwards surrendered and it was made the chief burgh of the regality and dukedom of Hamilton in 1668, the third marquess having been created duke in 1643.
The almost absolute power formerly wielded by the landlords, who within their own territories were lords of regality, hindered independent agricultural enterprise, and it was not till after the abolition of hereditable jurisdictions in 1748 that agriculture made real progress.
Those holding their charters from a feudal superior and not from the crown were called burghs of regality, their magistrates and council being usually appointed by the overlord or his representative.
Falkirk was made a burgh of barony in 1600 and a burgh of regality in 1646, but on the forfeiture of the earl of Linlithgow in 1715, its superiority was vested in the crown.
