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Reign of Alexander I, David I, Angus the Earl of Moray, the
Murrays, Somerled, thane of Argyle and the Isles, Malcolm IV, William
the Lion, the Saxons, Harold, the powerful Earl of Orkney and Caithness,
Donald Bane or MacWilliam, Alexander II, Earl of Ross, Alexander III,
Haco and the battle of Largs, King Robert Bruce, battle of bannockburn,
foundation of the Stewart dynasty.
The reign of Alexander I was
disturbed, about the year 1116, by an attempt made by the men of Moray and Merns to
surprise the king while enjoying himself at his favorite residence at Invergowrie, on the
north bank of the Tay, not far from its mouth. The king, however, showed himself more than
a match for his enemies, as he not only defeated their immediate purpose, but, pursuing
them with his army across the Moray Frith, chastised them so effectually as to keep them
quiet for the remainder of his reign, which ended by his death, in April, 1124. In 1130,
six years after the accession of King David I to the Scottish throne, while he was in
England, the Moraymen again rose against the semi-Saxon king, but were defeated at
Strickathrow, in Forfarshire, by Edward the Constable, son of Siward Beorn, Angus the Earl
of Moray being left among the dead, Malcolm his brother escaping to carry on the conflict.
In 1134 David himself took the field against these Highlanders, and, with the assistance
of the barons of Northumberland, headed by Walter L'Espec, completely subdued the
Moraymen, confiscated the whole district, and bestowed it upon knights in whose fidelity
he could place confidence, some of these being Normans.
This was manifestly, according to Dr. Maclauchlan, the period of the dispersion of the
ancient Moravienses. Never till then was the power of the Moray chiefs thoroughly broken,
and only then were the inhabitants proscribed, and many of them expelled. The Murrays,
afterwards so powerful, found their way to the south, carrying with them the name of their
ancient country, and some of the present tribes of Sutherland, as well as of
Inverness-shire, who, there is reason to believe, belonged to the Scoto-Pictish
inhabitants of Moray, removed their dwellings to those portions of the country which they
have occupied ever since. The race of Mac Heth may appear among the Mac Heths or Mac
Aoidhs, the Mackays of Sutherland, nor is this rendered less probable by the Morgnaich or
sons of Morgan, the ancient name of the Mackays, appearing in the Book of the Deer as
owning possessions and power in Buchan in the 10th or 11th century.
The next enterprise of any note was undertaken by Somerled, thane of Argyle and the Isles,
against the authority of Malcolm IV, who, after various conflicts, was repulsed, though
not subdued, by Gilchrist, Earl of Angus. A peace, concluded with this powerful chieftain
in 1153, was considered of such importance as to form an epoch in the dating of Scottish
charters. A still more formidable insurrection broke out among the Moraymen, under
Gildominick, on account of an attempt, on the part of the Government, to intrude the
Anglo-Norman jurisdiction, introduced into the Lowlands, upon their Celtic customs, and
the settling of Anglo-Belgic colonists among them. These insurgents laid waste the
neighbouring counties; and so regardless were they of the royal authority, that they
actually hanged the heralds who were sent to summon them to lay down their arms. Malcolm
dispatched the gallant Earl Gilchirst with an army to subdue them, but he was defeated,
and forced to recross the Grampians.
This defeat aroused Malcolm, who was naturally of an indolent disposition. About the year
1160 he marched north with a powerful army, and found the enemy on the moor of Unquhart,
near the Spey, ready to give him battle. After passing the Spey, the noblemen in the
king's army reconnoitered the enemy; but they found them so well prepared for action, and
so flushed with their late success, that they considered the issue of a battle rather
doubtful. On this account, the commanders advised the king to enter into a negotiation
with the rebels, and to promise, that in the event of a submission their lives would be
spared. The offer was accepted, and the king kept his word. According to Fordun, the king,
by the advice of his nobles, ordained that every family in Moray which had been engaged in
the rebellion should, within a limited time, remove out of Moray to other parts of the
kingdom, where lands would be assigned to them, and that their places should be supplied
with people from other parts of the kingdom. For the performance of this order, they have
hostages, it is said, and at the time appointed transplanted themselves, some into the
northern, but the greater number into the southern counties. Chalmers considers this
removal of the Moraymen as "an egregious improbability", because, "the
dispossessing of a whole people is so difficult an operation, that the recital of it
cannot be believed without strong evidence"; it is very probable that only the
ringleaders and their families were transported. The older historians say that the
Moraymen were almost totally cut off in an obstinate battle, and strangers brought into
their place.
About this time Somerled, the ambitious and powerful lord of the Isles, made another and a
last attempt upon the kings' authority. Having collected a large force, chiefly from
Ireland, he landed, in 1164 near Renfrew; but he was defeated by the brave inhabitants and
the king's troops in a decisive battle, in which he and his son Gillecolum were slain.
The reign of William the Lion, who succeeded his brother in 1165, was marked by many
disturbances in the Highlands. The Gaelic population could not endure the new settlers
whom the Saxons colonization had introduced among them, and every opportunity was taken to
vex and annoy them. An open insurrection broke out in Ross-shire, headed by Donald Bane,
known also as MacWilliam, which obliged William, in the year 1181, to march into the
north, where he built the two castles of Eddirton and Dunscath to keep the people in
check. He restored quiet for a few years; but, in 1187, Donald Bane again renewed his
pretensions to the crown, and raised the standard of revolt in the north. He took
possession of Ross, and wasted Moray. William lost no time in leading an army against him.
While the king lay at Inverness with his army, a party of 3,000 faithful men, under the
command of Roland, the brave lord of Galloway, and future Constable of Scotland, fell in
with Donald Bane and his army upon the Mangarvy moor, on the borders of Moray. A conflict
ensued in which Donald and five hundred of his followers were killed. Roland carried the
head of Donald to William, "as a savage sign of returning quiet". After this
comparative quietness prevailed in the north till the year 1196, when Harold, the powerful
Earl of Orkney and Caithness, disturbed its peace. William dispersed the insurgents at
once; but they again appeared the following year near Inverness, under the command of
Torphin, the son of Harold. The rebels were again overpowered. The king seized Harold, and
obliged him to deliver up his son, Torphin, as an hostage. Harold was allowed to retain
the northern part of Caithness, but the king gave the southern part of it, called
Sutherland, to Hugh Freskin, the progenitor of the Earls of Sutherland. Harold died in
1206; but as he had often rebelled, his son suffered a cruel and lingering death in the
castle of Roxburgh, where he had been confined.
During the year 1211 a new insurrection broke out in Ross, headed by Guthred or Godfrey,
the son of Donald Bane or MacWilliam, as he was called. Great depredations were committed
by the insurgents, who were chiefly freebooters from Ireland, the Hebrides, and Lochaber.
For a long time they baffled the king's troops; and although the king built two forts to
keep them in check, and took many prisoners, they maintained for a considerable period a
desultory and predatory warfare. Guthred even forced one of the garrisons to capitulate,
and burnt the castle; but being betrayed by his followers into the hands of William Comyn,
Earl of Buchan, the Justiciary of Scotland, he was excecuted in the year 1212.
Shortly after the accession of Alexander II in 1214, the peace of the north was attempted
to be disturbed by Donald MacWilliam, who made an inroad from Ireland into Moray; but he
was repulsed by the tribes of that country, led by M'Intagart, the Earl of Ross. In 122,
notwithstanding the formidable obsctacles which presented themselves from the nature of
the country, Alexander carried an army into Argyle, for the purpose of enforcing the
homage of the western chiefs. His presence so alarmed the men of Argyle, that they
immediately made their submission. Several of the chiefs feld for safety, and to punish
them, the king distributed their lands among his officers and their followers. After this
invasion Argyle was brought under the direct jurisdiction of the Scottish king, although
the descendants of the race of Somerled, Lord of the Isles, still continued to be the
chief magnates.
During the same year a tumult took place in Caithness on account of the severity with
which the tithes were exacted by Adam, the bishop, who, with his adviser, Serlo, was
murdered by the bonders. The king, who was at the time at Jedburgh, hearing of this
murder, immediately hastened to the north with a military force, and inflicted the
punishment of death upon the principal actors in this tragedy, who amounted, it is said,
to four hundred persons; and that their race might become extinct, their children were
emasculated, a practice very common in these barbarous times. The Earl of Caithness, who
was supposed to have been privy to the murder, was deprived of half of his estate, which
was afterwards restored to him on payment of a heavy fine. The Earl is said to have been
murdered by his own servants in the year 1231, and in order to prevent discovery they laid
his body into his bed and set fire to the house.
In 1228 the country of Moray became the theatre of a new insurrection, headed by a
Ross-shire freebooter, names Gillespoc M'Scolane. He committed great devastations by
burning some wooden castles in Moray, and spoiling the crown lands. He even attacked and
set fire to Inverness. A large army of horse and foot, under the command of John Comyn,
Earl of Buchan, Justiciary of Scotland, was, in 1229, sent against this daring rebel, who
was captured, with his two sons, and their heads sent to the king.
The lords of Argyle usually paid homage to the king of Norway for some of the Hebrides
which belonged to that monarch, but Ewan, on succeeding his father Duncan of Argyle in
1248, refused his homage to the Scottish king, who wished to possess the whole of the
Western Isles. Though Ewen was perfectly loyal, and indeed was one of the most honorable
men of his time, Alexander marched an army against him to enforce obedience, but his
Majesty died on his journey in Kerrera, a small island near the coast of Argyle opposite
Oban, on July 8, 1249, in the fifty-first year of his age, and the thirty-fifth of his
reign.
According to the custom of the times, his son, Alexander III, then a boy only in his
eighth year, was seated on the royal chair, or sacred stone of Scone, which was placed
before the cross that stood within the burying-ground. Immediately before his
inauguration, the bishop of St. Andrews girded him with the sword of state, and explained
to him, first in Latin and afterwards in Norman French, the nature of the compact he and
his subjects were about to enter into. The crown, after the king had been seated, was
placed on his head, and the sceptre put into his hand. He was then covered with the royal
mantle, and received the homage of the nobles on their knees, who, in token of submission,
threw their robes beneath his feet. On this occasion, agreeably to ancient practice, a
Gaelic sennachy, or bard, clothed in a red mantle, and venerable for his great age and
hoary looks, approached the king, and in bended and reverential attitude, recited, from
memory, in his native language, the genealogy of all the Scottish kings, deducing the
descent of the youthful monarch from Gathetus, the fabulous founder of the nation. The
reign of this prince was distinguished by the entire subjugation of the western islands to
the power of the Scottish crown. The Scandinavian settlers were allowed to leave the
islands, if inclined, and such of them as remained were bound to observe Scottish laws.
Shortly after the accession of Alexander III, an insurrection broke out against the Earl
of Ross, of some of the people of that province. The Earl apprehended their leader or
captain, whom he imprisoned at Dingwall. In revenge, the Highlanders seized upon the
Earl's second son at Balnagown, took him prisoner, and detained him as a hostage till
their captain should be released. The Monroes and the Dingwalls immediately took up arms,
and having pursued the insurgents, overtook them at a place called Bealligh-ne-Broig,
between Ferrandonald and Loch Broom, where a bloody conflict ensued. "The Clan Iver,
Clan-Talvich, and Clan-Laiwe", says Sir Robert Gordon, "wer almost utelie
extinguished and slain". The Monroes and Dingwalls lost a great many men. Dingwall of
Kildrum, and seven score of the surname of Dingwall, were killed. No less than eleven
Monroes of the house of Foulis, who were to succeed one after another, fell, so that the
succession of Foulis opened to an infant then lying in his cradle. The Earl's son was
rescued, and to requite the service performed, he made various grants of lands to the
Monroes and Dingwalls.
In 1263, the aged king of Norway, sailed with a large and powerful fleet, determined to
enforce acknowledgement of his claims as superior of the Western Islands on their chiefs,
as well as upon the king of Scotland. Sailing southwards among the islands, one chief
after another acknowledged his supremacy, and helped to swell his force, the only
honorable exception being the stanch Ewen of Argyle. Meantime Haco brought his fleet to
anchor in the Frith of Clyde, between Arran and the Ayreshire coast, his men committing
ravages on the neighboring country, as, indeed, they appear to have done during the whole
of his progress. Negotiations entered into between Haco and Alexander III came to nothing,
and as winter was approaching, and his fleet had suffered much from several severe storms
which caught it, the former was fain to make his way homewards. A number of his men,
however, contrived to effect a landing near Largs, where they were met by a miscellaneous
Scottish host, consisting of cavalry and country people, and finally completely routed.
The date of this skirmish, which is known as the battle of Largs, is October 2d, 1263.
Haco died in the end of the same year in Orkney, and in 1266 Magnus IV, his successor,
ceded the whole of the Scottish Islands held by Norway, except Orkney and Shetland, the
Scottish king paying a small annual rent. (Click
here to read an EText which includes mention of Hakon)Those of the islemen who had
proved unfaithful to the Scottish king were most severely and cruelly punished.
No event of any importance appears to have occurred in the Highlands
till the time of King Robert Bruce, who was attacked, after his defeat at Methven, by
Macdougall of Lorn, and defeated in Strathfillan. But Bruce was determined that Macdougall
should not long enjoy his petty triumph. Having been joined by his able partisan, Sir
James Douglas, he entered the territory of Lorn. On arriving at the narrow pass of Ben
Cruachan, between Loch Awe and Loch Etive, Bruce was informed that Macdougall had laid an
amuscade for him. Bruce divided his army into two parts. One of these divisions,
consisting entirely of archers who were lightly armed, was placed under the command of
Douglas, who was directed to make a circuit round the mountain, and to attack the
Highlanders in the rear. As soon as Douglas had gained possession of the ground above the
Highlanders, Bruce entered the pass, and, as soon as he had advanced into its narrow
gorge, he was attacked by the men of Lorn, who, from the surrounding heights, hurled down
stones upon him accompanied with loud shouts. They then commenced a closer attack, but
being instantly assailed in the rear by Douglas's division, and assaulted by the king with
great fury in front, they were thrown into complete disorder, and defeated with great
slaughter. Macdougall, who was, during the action, on board a small vessel in Loch Etive,
waiting the result, took refuge in his castle of Dunstaffnage. After ravaging the
territory of Lorn, and giving it up to indiscriminate plunder, Bruce laid siege to the
castle, which, after a slight resistance, was surrendered by the lord of Lorn, who swore
homage to the king; but John, the son of the chief, refused to submit, and took refuge in
England.
During the civil wars among the competitors for the Scottish crown, and those under
Wallace and Bruce for the independence of Scotland, the Highlanders scarcely ever appear
as participators in those stirring scenes which developed the resources and called forth
the chivalry of Scotland; but we are not to infer from the silence of history that they
were less alive than their southern countrymen to the honour and glory of their country,
or that they did not contribute to secure its independence. General Stewart says that
eighteen Highland chiefs (Mackay, Mackintosh, Macpherson, Cameron, Sinclair, Campbell,
Menzies, Maclean, Sutherland, Robertson, Grant, Fraser, Macfarlane, Ross, Macgregor,
Munro, Mackenzie and Macquarrie) fought under Robert Bruce at Bannockburn; and as these
chiefs would be accompanied by their vassals, it is fair to suppose that Highland prowess
lent its powerful aid to obtain that memorable victory which secured Scotland from the
dominion of a foreign yoke.
After Robert Bruce had asserted the independence of his country by the decisive battle of
Bannockburn, the whole kingdom, with the exception of some of the western islands, under
John of Argyle, the ally of England, submitted to his authority. He, therefore, undertook
an expedition against those isles, in which he was accompanies by Walter, the hereditary
high steward of Scotland, his son-in-law, who, by his marriage with Marjory, King Robert's
daughter, laid the foundation of the Stewart dynasty. To avoid the necessity of doubling
the Mull of Kintyre, which was a dangerous attempt for the small vessels then in use,
Robert sailed up Loch-Fyne to Tarbert with his fleet, which he dragged across the narrow
isthmus between the lochs of East and West Tarbert, by means of a slide of smooth planks
of trees laid parallel to each other. It had long been a superstitious belief amongst the
inhabitants of the Western Islands, that they should never be subdued till their invaders
sailed across this neck of land, and it is said that Robert was therby partly induced to
follow the course he did to impress upon the minds of the islanders a conviction that the
time of their subjugation had arrived. The islanders were quickly subdued, and John of
Lorn, who, for his services to Edward of England, had been invested with the title of
Admiral of the Western fleet of England, was captured and imprisoned first in Dumbarton
castle and afterwards in the castle of Loch Leven, where he died.
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