After the defeat of James,
Earl of Douglas, who had renounced his allegiance to James II., At Arkinholme, in 1454, he
retired into Argylshire, where he was received by the Earl of Ross, with whom, and the
Lord of the Isles, he entered into an alliance. The ocean prince, having a powerful fleet
of 500 galleys at his command, immediately assembled his vassals, to the amount of 5,000
fighting men, and, having embarked them in his navy, gave the command of the whole to
Donald Balloch, Lord of Isla, his near kinsman, a chief who, besides his possessions in
Scotland, had great power in the north of Ireland. This potent chief, whose hereditary
antipathy to the Scottish throne was as keen as that of his relation, entered cheerfully
into the views of Douglas. With the force under his command he desolated the western coast
of Scotland from Innerkip to Bute, the Cumbraes and the Island of Arran; yet formidable as
he was both in men and ships, the loss was not so considerable as might have been
expected, from the prudent precautions taken by the king to repel the invaders. The
summary of the damage sustained is thus related in a contemporary chronicle:- There was
slain of good men fifteen; of women, two or three; of children, three or four. The plunder
included five or six hundred horse, ten thousand oxen and kine, and more than a thousand
sheep and goats. At the same time, they burnt down several mansions in Innerkip around the
church; harried all Arran; stormed and levelled with the ground the castle of Brodick; and
wasted, with fire and sword, the islands of the Cumbraes. They also levied tribute upon
Bute; carrying away a hundred boils of malt, a hundred marts, and a hundred marks of
silver."
While Donald Balloch was engaged in this
expedition, the Lord of the Isles, with his kinsmen and followers to the number of five or
six hundred, made an incursion into Sutherland, and encamped before the castle of Skibo.
What his object was has not been ascertained; but, as a measure of precaution, the Earl of
Sutherland sent NeiIl Murray, son of Angus Murray, who was slain at Drum-na-Coub, to watch
his motions. The Lord of the Isles immediately began to commit depredations, whereupon he
was attacked by Murray, and compelled to retreat into Ross with the loss of one of his
captains, named Donald Dubh-na-Soirn, and fifty of his men. Exasperated at this defeat,
Macdonald sent another party of his islanders, along with a company of men from Ross, to
Strathfleet in Sutherland to lay waste the country, and thus wipe off the disgrace of his
late defeat. On hearing of this fresh invasion, the Earl of Sutherland despatched his
brother Robert with a sufficient force to attack the Clandonald. They met on the sands of
Strathfleet, and, after a fierce and bloody struggle, the islanders and their allies were
overthrown with great slaughter. Many perished in the course of their flight. This was the
last hostile irruption of the Clandonald into Sutherland, as all the disputes between the
Lord of the Isles and the Sutherland family were afterwards accommodated by a matrimonial
alliance.
The vigorous administration of James II.,
which checked and controlled the haughty and turbulent spirit of his nobles, was also felt
in the Highlands, where his power, if not always acknowledged, was nevertheless dreaded;
but upon the death of that wise prince in 1460, and the accession of his infant son to the
crown, the princes of the north again abandoned themselves to their lawless courses. The
first who showed the example was Allan of Lorn of the Wood, as he was called, a nephew of
Donald Balloch by his sister. Coveting the estate of his elder brother, Ker of Lorn, Allan
imprisoned him in a dungeon in the island of Kerrera, with the view of starving him to
death that he might the more easily acquire the unjust possession he desired; but Ker was
liberated, and his property restored to him by the Earl of Argyle, to whom he was nearly
related, and who suddenly attacked Allan with a fleet of galleys, defeated him, burnt his
fleet, and slew the greater part of his men. This act, so justifiable in itself, roused
the revengeful passions of the island chiefs, who issued from their ocean retreats and
committed the most dreadful excesses.
After the decisive battle of Touton, Henry VI. and his Queen
retired to Scotland to watch the first favourable opportunity of seizing the sceptre from
the house of York. Edward IV., anticipating the danger that might arise to his crown by an
alliance between his rival, the exiled monarch, and the king of Scotland, determined to
counteract the effects of such a connection by a stroke of policy. Aware of the
disaffected disposition of some of the Scottish nobles, and northern and island chiefs, he
immediately entered into a negotiation with John, Earl of Ross, and Donald Balloch, to
detach them from their allegiance. On the 19th of October, 1461, the Earl of Ross, Donald
Balloch, and his son John de Isle, held a council of their vassals and dependants at
Astornish, at which it was agreed to send ambassadors to England to treat with Edward. On
the arrival of these ambassadors a negotiation was entered into between them and the Earl
of Douglas, and John Douglas of Balveny, his brother, both of whom had been obliged to
leave Scotland for their treasons in the previous reign. These two brothers, who were
animated by a spirit of hatred and revenge against the family of their late sovereign
James II., warmly entered into the views of Edward, whose subjects they had become; and
they concluded a treaty with the northern ambassadors which assumed as its basis nothing
less than the entire conquest of Scotland. Among other conditions, it was stipulated that,
upon payment of a specified sum of money to himself, his son, and ally, the Lord of the
Isles should become for ever the vassal of England, and should assist Edward and his
successors in the wars in Ireland and elsewhere. And, in the event of the entire
subjugation of Scotland by the Earls of Ross and Douglas, the whole of the kingdom on the
north of the Frith of Forth was to be divided equally between these Earls and Donald
Balloch, and the estates which formerly belonged to Douglas between the Frith of Forth and
the borders were to be restored to him. This singular treaty is dated London, 18th
February, 1462.
Pending this negotiation, the Earl of Angus, at that time one
of the most powerful of the Scottish nobles, having, by the promise of an English dukedom
from the exiled Henry, engaged to assist in restoring him to his crown and dominions, the
Earl of Ross, before the plan had been organized, in order to counteract the attempt,
broke out into open rebellion, which was characterized by all those circumstances of
barbarous cruelty which distiguished the inroads of the princes of the islands. He first
seized the castle of Inverness at the head of a small party, being admitted unawares by
the governor, who did not suspect his hostile intentions. He then collected a considerable
army, and proclaimed himself king of the Hebrides. With his army he entered the country of
Athole, denounced the authority of the king, and commanded all taxes to be paid to him;
and, after committing the most dreadful excesses, he stormed the castle of Blair, dragged
the Earl and Countess of Athole from the chapel of St Bridget, and carried them off to
Isla as prisoners. It is related that the Earl of Ross thrice attempted to set fire to the
holy pile, but in vain. He lost many of his war-galleys, in a storm of thunder and
lightning, in which the rich booty he had taken was consigned to the deep. Preparations
were immediately made by the regents of the kingdom for punishing this rebellious chief;
but these became unnecessary, for, touched with remorse, he collected the remains of his
plunder, and stripped to his shirt and drawers, and barefooted, he, along with his
principal followers, in the same forlorn and dejected condition, went to the chapel of St.
Bridget which they had lately desecrated, and there performed a penance before the altar.
The Earl and Countess of Athole were thereupon voluntarily released from confinement, and
the Earl of Ross was afterwards assassinated in the castle of Inverness, by an Irish
harper who bore him a grudge.
Although at this period an account of Orkney
and Shetland does not properly belong to a history of the Highlands, as these islands had
long been the property of the king of Norway, and had a population almost purely Teutonic,
with a language, manners, and customs widely differing from those of the Highlanders
proper; still it will not be out of place to mention here, that these islands were finally
made over to Scotland in 1469, as security for the dowry of Margaret of Norway, the wife
of James III.
The successor of the Lord of the Isles—who was generally
more like an independent sovereign than a subject of the Scottish king—not being
disposed to tender the allegiance which his father had violated, the king, in the month of
May, 1476, assembled a large army on the north of the Forth, and a fleet on the west
coast, for the purpose of making a simultaneous attack upon him by sea and land. Seeing no
hopes of making effectual resistance against such a powerful force as that sent against
him, he tendered his submission to the king on certain conditions, and resigned the
earldom of Ross, and the lands of Kintyre and Knapdale, into his majesty’s hands. By
this act he was restored to the king’s favour, who forgave him all his offences, and
"infeft him of new" in the lordship of the Isles and the other lands which he
did not renounce. The Earl of Athole, who commanded the royal army, was rewarded for this
service by a grant of the lands and forest of Cluny.
After the Lord of the Isles had thus resigned
the earldom of Ross into the king’s hands, that province was perpetually molested by
incursions from the islanders, who now considered it a fit theatre for the exercise of
their predatory exploits. GiIlespie, cousin of the Lord of the Isles, at the head of a
large body of the islanders, invaded the higher part of Ross and committed great
devastation. The inhabitants, or as many as the shortness of the time would permit,
amongst whom the Clankenzie were chiefly distinguished, speedily assembled, and met the
islanders on the banks of the Connan, where a sharp conflict took place. The Clankenzie
fought with great valour, and pressed the enemy so hard that Gillespie Macdonald was
overthrown, and the greater part of his men were slain or drowned in the river, about two
miles from Braile, thence called Blar-na-Paire. The predecessor of the Laird of Brodie,
who happened to be with the chief of the Mackenzies at the time, fought with great
courage.
For a considerable time the district of Sutherland had
remained tranquil, but on the 11th of July, 1487, it again became the scene of a bloody
encounter between the Mackays and the Rosses. To revenge the death of a relation, or to
wipe away the stigma of a defeat, were considered sacred and paramount duties by the
Highlanders; and if, from the weakness of the clan, the minority of the chief, or any
other cause, the day of deadly reckoning was delayed, the feeling which prompted revenge
was never dormant, and the earliest opportunity was embraced of vindicating the honour of
the clan. Angus Mackay, son of the famous Neil of the Bass, having been killed at Tarbert
by a Ross, his son, John Riabhaieh Mackay, applied to John Earl of Sutherland, on whom he
depended, to assist him in revenging his father’s death. The Earl promised his aid,
and accordingly sent his uncle, Robert Sutherland, with a company of chosen men, to assist
John Mackay. With this force, and such men as John Mackay and his relation
Uilleam-Dubh-MaeIain-Abaraich, son of John Aberigh who fought at Drum-na-Coub, could
collect, they invaded Strath-oy-kell, carrying fire and sword in their course, and laying
waste many lands belonging to the Rosses. As soon as the Laird of Balnagown, the chief of
the Rosses, heard of this attack, he collected all his forces, and attacked Robert
Sutherland and John Riabhaich Mackay, at a place called Aldy-charrish. A long and
obstinate battle took place; but the death of Balnagown and seventeen of the principal
landed gentlemen of Ross decided the combat, for the people of Ross, being deprived of
their leader, were thrown into confusion, and utterly put to flight, with great slaughter.
The fruit of this victory was a large quantity of booty,
which the victors divided the same day; but the avarice of the men of Assynt, induced them
to instigate John Mackay to resolve to commit one of the most perfidious and diabolical
acts ever perpetrated by men who had fought on the same side. The design of the Assynt men
was, to cut off Robert Sutherland and his whole party, and possess themselves of their
share of the spoil, before the Earl of Sutherland could learn the result of the battle,
that he might be led to suppose that his uncle and his men had all fallen in the action
with the Rosses. When this plan was divulged to Uilleam-Dubh-Mae-Iain-Abaraieh, he was
horrified at it, and immediately sent notice to Robert Sutherland of it, that he might be
upon his guard. Robert assembled his men upon receipt of this extraordinary intelligence,
told them of the base intentions of John Mackay, and put them in order, to be prepared for
the threatened attack; but on John Riabhaich Mackay perceiving that Robert and his party
were prepared to meet him, he slunk off, and went home to Strathnaver.
The lawless state of society in the
Highlands, which followed as a consequence from the removal of the seat of govemment to
the Lowlands, though it often engaged the attention of the Scottish sovereigns, never had
proper remedies applied to mend it. At one time the aid of force was called in, and when
that was found ineffectual, the vicious principle of dividing the chiefs, that they might
the more effectually weaken and destroy one another, was adopted. Both plans, as might be
supposed, proved abortive. If the government had, by conciliatory measures, and by a
profusion of favours, suitable to the spirit of the times, secured the attachment of the
heads of the clans, the supremacy of the laws might twice have been vindicated, and the
sovereign might have calculated upon the support of powerful and trustworthy auxiliaries
in his domestic isles struggles against the encroachments of the nobles. Such ideas appear
never to have once entered the minds of the kings, but it was reserved for James IV., who
succeeded to the throne in 1488, to make the experiment "To grand attach to his
interest the principal chiefs of these provinces, to overawe and subdue the petty princes
who affected independence, to carry into their territories, hitherto too exclusively
governed by their own capricious or tyrannical institutions, the same system of a severe,
but regular and rapid, administration of civil and criminal justice, which had been
established in his Lowland dominions, was the laudable object of the king; and for this
purpose he succeeded, with that energy and activity which remarkably distinguished him, in
opening up an intercourse with many of the leading men in the northern counties. With the
captain of the Clanchattan, Duncan Mackintosh; with Ewan, the son of Alan, captain of the
Clancameron; with Campbell of Glenurqhay; the Macgilleouns of Duart and Lochbuy; Mackane
of Ardnamurchan; the lairds of Mackenzie and Grant; and the Earl of Huntley, a baron of
the most extensive power in those northern districts—he appears to have been in
habits of constant and regular communication - rewarding them by presents, in the shape
either of money or of grants of land, and securing their services in reducing to obedience
such of their fellow chieftains as proved contumacious, or actually rose in
rebellion."
But James carried his views further. Rightly
judging how much the personal presence of the sovereign would be valued by his distant
subjects and the good effects which would result therefrom, he resolved to visit different
of his parts of his northern dominions. Accordingly, in the year 1490, accompanied by his
court, he rode twice from Perth across the chain of mountains which extends across the
country from the border of the Mearns to the head of Loch Rannoch, which chain is known by
the name of the "Mount." Again, in 1493, he twice visited the Highlands, and
went as far as Dunstaffnage and Mengarry, in Ardnamurchan. In the following year he
visited the isles no less than three times. His first voyage to the islands, which took
place in April and May, was conducted with great state. He was attended by a vast suite,
many of whom fitted out vessels at their own expense. The grandeur which surrounded the
king impressed the Islanders with a high idea of his wealth and power; and his
condescension and familiarity with all classes of his subjects, acquired for him a
popularity which added strength to his throne. During these marine excursions the youthful
monarch indulged his passion for sailing and hunting, and thereby relieved the tediousness
of business by the recreation of agreeable and innocent pleasures.
The only opposition which James met with during these
excursions was from the restless Lord of the Isles, who had the temerity to put the king
at defiance, notwithstanding the repeated and signal marks of the royal favour he had
experienced. But James was not to be trifled with, for he summoned the island prince to
stand his trial for "treason in Kintyre;" and in a parliament held in Edinburgh
shortly the king’s return from the north, "Sir John of the Isles," as he is
named in the tresurer’s accounts, was stripped of his power and his possessions were
forfeited to the crown.
One of
those personal petty feuds which were so prevalent in the Highlands, occurred about this
time. Alexander Sutherland of Dilred, being unable or unwilling to repay a sum of money he
had borrowed from Sir James Dunbar of Cumnock, the latter took legal measures to secure
his debt by appraising part of Dilred’s lands. This proceeding vexed the laird of
Dilred exceedingly, and he took an umbrage at the Dunbars, who had recently settled in
Sutherland, "grudgeing, as it were," says Sir R. Gordon, "that a stranger
should brawe (brave) him at his owne doors." Happening to meet Alexander Dunbar,
brother of Sir James, who had lately married Lady Margaret Baillie, Countess Dowager of
Sutherland, high words passed between them, a combat ensued, and, after a long contest,
Alexander Dunbar was killed. Sir James Dunbar thereupon went to Edinburgh, and laid the
matter before King James IV., who was so exasperated at the conduct of Alexander
Sutherland, that he immediately proclaimed him a rebel, sent messengers every-where in
search of him, and promised his lands to any person that would apprehend him. After some
search he was apprehended with ten of his followers by his uncle, Y-Roy-Mackay, brother of
John Reawigh Mackay already mentioned, who sent him to the king. Dilred was tried,
condemned, and executed, and his lands declared forfeited. For this service, Y-Roy-Mackay
obtained from the king a grant of the lands of Armdall, Far, Golspietour, Kinnald,
Kilcolmkill, and Dilred, which formerly belonged to Alexander Sutherand, as was noted in
Mackay’s inleftment, Iated in 1449. "Avarice," says Sir R. Gordon, "is
a strange vyce, which respects neither blood nor freindship. This is the first infeftment
that any of the familie of Macky had from the king, so far as I can perceave by the
records of this kingdom and they wer untill this tyme possessors onlie of ther lands in
Strathnaver, not careing much for any charters or infeftments, as most pairts of the
Highanders have alwise done."
The grant of the king as to the lands over which Sir James
Dunbar’s security extended, was called in question by Sir James, who obtained a
decree before the lords of council and session, in February, 1512, setting aside the right
of Y-Roy-Mackay, and ordaining the Earl of Sutherland, as superior of the lands, to
receive Sir James Dunbar as his vassaL
A lamentable instance of the ferocity of
these times is afforded in the case of one of the Earls of Sutherland, who upon some
provocation slew two of his nephews. This earl, who was named John, had a natural brother,
Thomas Moir, who had two sons, Robert Sutherland and the Keith, so called on account of
his being brought up by a person of that name. The young men had often annoyed the Earl,
and on one occasion they entered his castle of Dunrobin to brave him to his face, an act
which so provoked the Earl, that he instantly killed Robert in the house. The Keith, after
receiving several wounds, made his escape, but he was overtaken and slain at the Clayside,
near Dunrobin, which from that circumstance was afterwards called Ailein-Cheith, or the
bush of the Keith.
In 1513 a troop of Highlanders helped to swell the Scotch
army on the ever-memorable and disastrous field of Flodden, but from their peculiar mode
of fighting, so different from that of the Lowlanders, appear to have been more a
hindrance than a help. |
