THE ISLES, Lord of,
an ancient title, possessed by the descendants of Somerled, thane of
Argyle, who in 1135, when David I. Expelled the Norwegians from Arran
and Bute, and some other of the islands, appears to have got a grant
of them from that monarch. To secure himself in possession, however,
he married, about 1140, Effrica, or Ragnhildis, the daughter of Olave
the Red, king of Man, from which marriage sprung the dynasty so well
known in Scottish history as the Lords of the Isles. By her he had
three sons: Dugall, Reginald or Ranald, and Angus. The Chronicle of
Man adds a fourth, Olave. By a previous marriage he had one son,
Gillecolane. According to the Celtic genealogists, this Somerled (the
name is Norse, in Gaelic Somhairle, in English, Samuel) was
descended, through a long line of ancestors, from the celebrated Irish
king Conn Chead Chath, or Conn of the hundred battles. He
assisted his son-in-law, Wimund, the pretended earl of Moray, when he
invaded Scotland in 1141, and on the death of David I., accompanied by
the children of Wimund, he landed with a great force, in Scotland, 5th
November 1153, in order to revenge the wrongs done to him. Having,
however, encountered a more vigorous opposition than he had
anticipated, he found it necessary to agree to terms of accommodation
with Malcolm IV., an event which was deemed of so much importance as
to form an epoch from which various royal charters were dated.
His
brother-in-law, Godred the Black, king of Man, had acted so
tyrannically that Thorfinn, one of the most powerful of the insular
nobles, resolved to depose him, and applied to Somerled for his son,
Dugall, then a child, whom he proposed to make king of the Isles in
Godred’s place. Carrying Dugall through all the isles, except Man,
Thorfinn forced the inhabitants to acknowledge him as their king, and
took hostages from them for their obedience. One of the chief
islanders fled to the Isle of Man, and informed Godred of the plot
against him. That prince immediately collected a large fleet, and
proceeded against the rebels, then under the guidance of Somerled,
with a fleet of eighty galleys. After a bloody but indecisive battle
(1156) a treaty was entered into, by which Godred ceded to the sons of
Somerled what were afterwards called the South Isles, retaining for
himself the North Isles and Man. Two years afterwards, Somerled
invaded the latter island with a fleet of fifty-three ships, and laid
the whole island waste, after defeating Godred in battle.
Somerled’s
power was now very great, and for some time he carried on a vexatious
predatory warfare on the coasts of Scotland, till Malcolm required of
him to resign his possessions into his hands as his sovereign, and to
hold them in future as a vassal of the Scottish crown. Somerled
refused, and in 1164, assembling a numerous army, he sailed up the
Clyde, with 160 galleys, and landed his forces near Renfrew, where he
was met by the Scots army, under the high steward of Scotland, and
defeated, he himself and his son Gillecolane being amongst the slain.
According to tradition, he was assassinated in his tent by an
individual in whom he placed confidence. This celebrated chief has
been traditionally described as “a well tempered man, in body shapely,
of a fair piercing eye, of middle stature, and of quick discernment.”
According to the then prevalent custom of gavel kind, whilst
Gillecolane’s son, also named Somerled, succeeded to his grandfather’s
superiority of Argyle, the insular possessions were divided among his
sons descended of the house of Man. Dugall, the eldest of these, got
for his share, Mull, Coll, Tiree, and Jura; Reginald, the second son,
obtained Isla and Kintyre; and Angus, the third son, Bute. Arran is
supposed to have been divided between the two latter. The chronicle of
Man mentions a battle, in 1192, between Reginald and Angus, in which
the latter obtained the victory. He was killed, in 1210, with his
three sons, by the men of Skye, leaving no male issue. One of his
sons, James, left a daughter and heiress, Jane, afterwards married to
Alexander, son and heir of Walter, high steward of Scotland, who, in
her right, claimed the isle of Bute.
Both Dugall
and Reginald were called kings of the Isles at the time that Reginald,
the son of Godred the Black, was styled king of Man and the Isles; and
in the next generation we find in a Norse chronicle, mention made of
three kings of the Isles, of the race of Somerled, existing at one
time. It is evident, therefore, says Mr. Gregory, that the word king,
as used by the Norwegians and their vassals in the Isles, was not
confined as in Scotland, to one supreme ruler, but that it had with
them an additional meaning, corresponding either to prince of the
blood, or to magnate. (Highlands and Isles of Scotland, p. 17).
On Dugall’s death, the isles that had fallen to his share, instead of
descending immediately to his children, were acquired by his brother,
Reginald. As lord of Kintyre, the latter granted certain lands to the
abbey of Saddel, in Kintyre, which had been founded by him, for monks
of the Cistercian order. He also made ample donations to the monastery
of Paisley. From Dugall sprung the great house of the MacDougals of
Lorn, who styled themselves de Ergadia or of Argyle. He left two sons,
Dugall Scrag, and Duncan, who, in the northern Sagas, bear the title
of the Sudereyan kings. Dugall was taken prisoner by Haco, king of
Norway, but of the history of Duncan nothing is known, except that he
founded the priory of Ardchattan in Lorn. He was succeeded by his son,
Ewen, commonly called King Ewen, and sometimes, erroneously, King
John, of whom honourable mention is made in a previous part of this
work.
Reginald had
two sons, Donald and Roderick. From Donald, who appears to have
inherited the Isles, spring the great family of Isla, patronymically
styled Macdonald (see that surname). On Roderick or Ruari, his second
son, Reginald bestowed Bute and part of Kintyre. He was the founder of
a distinct family, that of Bute, (Patronymically styled Macruari or
M’rory,) which afterwards became very powerful in the Isles. Roderick
was one of the most noted pirates of his day, and the annals of the
period are filled with accounts of his predatory expeditions. The
Scots having driven him out of Bute, he went to Norway, to solicit
assistance from King Haco, and the complaints made by him and other
islanders, of the aggressions of the Scots, led to Haco’s celebrated
expedition to Scotland in 1266, which ended in his defeat and death.
Roderick had two sons, Dugall and Allan, who, with their father, were
devoted partisans of Haco. They were forced to resign Bute, but had
lands assigned to them, on their agreeing to become vassals of
Scotland, in that portion of the Isles which had belonged to the king
of Man. This family, in consequence, were styled Macruaries of the
North Isles; and on the death of Dugall, called Rex Hebudum,
without descendants, his brother Allan succeeded to his possessions,
to which afterwards he appears to have added the lordship of Garmoran,
on the mainland, (Gregory’s Highlands and Isles, p. 22,)
comprehending the districts of Moydart, Arassaig, Morar, and Knoydert.
Angus, lord
of Isla, the son of Donald, styled Angus Mor by the Seannachies, had
his lands ravaged in 1255, by Alexander III., for refusing to renounce
his fealty to Norway. Although, on this occasion he was forced to
submit, eight years afterwards, on the arrival of Haco in the Isles,
he joined the Norwegians. But on the annexation of the western isles
to Scotland, he finally transferred his allegiance to the Scottish
crown. In 1284 he was present at the convention by which the Maiden of
Norway was declared heiress to the throne of Scotland. At this
convention attended also Alexander de Ergadia of Lorn, son of Ewen,
and Allan MacRuari of the North Isles, son of Roderick. Angus Mor died
soon after 1292. He had two sons, Alexander of Isla, and Angus. The
elder son, Alexander, by a marriage with one of the daughters of Ewen
of Lorn, acquired a considerable addition to his possessions, but
having joined the lord of Lorn in his opposition to Robert the Bruce,
he became involved in the ruin of that chief; and being obliged to
surrender to the king, he was imprisoned in Dundonald castle,
Ayrshire, where he died. His whole possessions were forfeited and
given to his brother, Angus Oig, who had supported the claims of
Bruce. After the defeat at Methven, and the subsequent unfortunate
skirmish with the men of Lorn at Tyndrum, Angus hospitably received
Bruce into his castle of Dunaverty, in August 1306, and there
sheltered him until he found it necessary to take refuge in the island
of Rachlin. He assisted in the attack upon Carrick, when the king had
landed in his patrimonial district, and he was present at the battle
of Bannockburn where the men of the Isles, under “Syr Anguss of Ile
and But,” formed the reserve. When the struggle was over, Bruce
bestowed upon Angus the lordship of Lochaber, which had belonged to
the Comyns, with the lands of Durrour and Glenco, and the islands of
Mull, Tyree, &c., which had formed part of the possessions of the
family of Lorn. He left two sons: John, his successor, and Join Oig,
ancestor of the Macdonalds of Glenco.
Allan
MacRuari of the North Isles, above mentioned, had an illegitimate son,
Roderick, the leader of the vassals of Christina, his daughter and
heiress. This Roderick, having also attached himself to the fortunes
of Bruce, received from that monarch the greater part of Lorn, and at
the same time his sister, Christina, bestowed on him a large portion
of her inheritance in Garmoran and the North Isles. In 1325, Roderick
was forfeited of all his possessions for engaging in some plot against
the king, Mr. Skene thinks “from some connexion with the Soulis
conspiracy of 1320.” His lands were restored to his son, Ranald, by
David II., about 1344. Two years thereafter, Ranald was killed in the
monastery of Elcho, near Perth, where he had taken up his temporary
quarters, having been attacked there at midnight by the earl of Ross,
from whom he held the lands of Kintail in N. Argyle.
John of
Isla, the son and heir of Angus Oig, and chief of the clan Donald,
having had some dispute with the regent concerning certain lands which
had been granted by Robert the Bruce, joined the party of Edward
Baliol, and by a treaty concluded 12th December 1335,
engaged to support his pretensions in consideration of a grant of the
lands and islands claimed by him. On the return of David II. From
France in 1341, that monarch, anxious to secure the support of the
most powerful of his barons, concluded a treaty with John of Isla,
who, in consequence, pledged himself to support his government. He had
married Amy, the sister of Ranald, and as that chief left no issue,
she became his heir, and her husband, uniting her possessions to his
own, assumed the title of lord of the Isles. The king, however,
unwilling to aggrandise a chief already too powerful, determined to
evade his claim, and John, again, transferred his support to the party
of Baliol. When David returned from his captivity in England in 1357,
John of the Isles abandoned that party, and having without any cause
divorced his lady, with whom he had got such extensive possessions, he
married, secondly, the lady Margaret, daughter of Robert, high steward
of Scotland. In 1366, when the heavy burdens imposed upon the people
for the ransom of the king, had produced general discontent, and the
steward had been thrown into prison by David, the northern barons
broke out into open rebellion, to put down which the steward was
released. All the northern chiefs submitted, except the lord of the
Isles, who was forfeited; but the steward prevailed upon his
son-in-law to meet the king at Inverness, in 1369, when an agreement
was entered into, by which John not only engaged to submit to the
royal authority, and pay his share of all public burdens, but promised
to oppose all others who should attempt to resist either, and gave
hostages for his faithful fulfilment of this obligation. The accession
of the steward to the throne took place the following year, and during
the whole of the reign of Robert II., John of the Isles conducted
himself as a loyal and obedient subject. From his father-in-law he
received a feudal title to all those lands which had belonged to his
first wife, whom he had divorced. Godfrey, his eldest surviving son by
her, resisted this unjust proceeding, maintaining his mother’s prior
claims and his own as her heir, but Ranald, his younger brother, for
not opposing it, was rewarded by a grant of the North Isles, Garmoran,
and many other lands, to hold of his father and his heirs.
Subsequently, John resigned into the king’s hands nearly the whole of
the western portion of his territories, and received charters of these
lands in favour of himself and the issue of his second marriage (three
sons), so that the latter were rendered feudally independent of the
children of the first marriage, also three sons. John of the Isles
died about 1386, at his own castle of Ardtornish, in Morvern, and was
buried in Iona. He had given liberal grants to the church, and the
ecclesiastics of the Isles are traditionally said to have bestowed
upon him the appellation of “the good John of Isla.” According to the
seannachies, Ranald, the youngest son of the first marriage, was “old
in the government of the Isles at his father’s death.” He afterwards
acted as tutor or guardian to his younger brother, Donald, lord of the
Isles, to whom, on his attaining majority, he delivered over the
lordship, in presence of the vassals. He did not long survive his
father, and his children were dispossessed by their uncle, Godfrey,
who assumed the title of lord of Uist and Garmoran.
Donald,
second lord of the Isles, the eldest son of the second marriage,
married Mary Leslie, afterwards countess of Ross, which led to a
contest with the regent duke of Albany regarding that earldom, and to
the celebrated battle of Harlaw in 1411, the whole circumstances
connected with which will be found detailed in the memoir of the first
duke of Albany (see ALBANY). On his brothers of the full blood Donald,
virtual earl of Ross in right of his wife, bestowed ample territories
as his vassals, and each of them became the founder of a powerful
family (see MACDONALD, surname of). Donald died in Isla about 1420,
and was interred in Iona, with the usual ceremonies. He left
Alexander, his successor both in the Isles, and the earldom of Ross,
and Angus, afterwards bishop of the Isles (See ROSS, earl of).
Alexander’s
son and successor, John II., fourth lord of the Isles, and earl of
Ross, on 13th February 1462, entered into a treaty with
Edward IV. Of England and the banished earl of Douglas, for the
conquest of Scotland. On this occasion he assumed the style of an
independent prince, and granted a commission to his “trusty and well
beloved cousins, Ranald of the Isles and Duncan, archdean of the
Isles,” to confer with the deputies of Edward IV. According to the
conditions of the treaty, the lord of the Isles, with the celebrated
Donald Balloch of Isla, who had some years previously defeated the
royal forces under the earls of Caithness and Mar, and John, his son
and heir, and all their retainers, agreed to become Edward’s sworn
vassals, and to assist him in all his wars, upon payment to each of a
stipulated sum of money; and it was farther provided that, in the
event of the entire subjugation of Scotland, the whole of the kingdom
north of the Forth was to be equally divided between the earls of Ross
and Douglas, and Donald Balloch, while Douglas was to be put in
possession of his extensive estates between the Forth and the English
border. Soon after the lord of the Isles raised the standard of
rebellion. Assembling a large force under the command of his bastard
son, Angus, and Donald Balloch, they made themselves masters of the
castle of Inverness, whence proclamations were issued in name of the
earl, addressed to all the inhabitants of the burghs and sheriffdom of
Inverness, including also Nairn, Ross and Caithness, and the people
were commanded to obey the said Angus as the earl’s lieutenant, under
pain of death, to pay to him all the taxes usually paid to the crown,
and to refuse obedience to the king.
On the
suppression of this rebellion, the earl of Ross was summoned before
parliament for treason, but failed to appear. In 1475 the treaty above
mentioned became known to the government. He was, in consequence,
summoned in his castle of Dingwall to appear before the Estates of the
realm at Edinburgh, and the earl of Argyle received a commission to
prosecute the decree of forfeiture against him. Failing to appear, he
was declared a traitor, and his estates were confiscated. He only
prevented an armed invasion of the Isles by suing for pardon, by the
intercession of the earl of Huntly. He even appeared in person at
Edinburgh, and with many expressions of contrition surrendered himself
to the clemency of James III. The queen and the Estates of the realm
also pleaded for him, and in July 1476, he was restored to the
forfeited earldom of Ross and the lordship of the Isles. He then
voluntarily resigned that earldom, and the lands of Kintyre and
Knapdale, and, as a compensation, was created a peer of parliament by
the title of lord of the Isles. He had no children by his wife,
Elizabeth Livingston, daughter of Lord Livingston, great-chamberlain
of Scotland, but the succession to the new title, and the estates
connected with it, was secured in favour of his illegitimate sons,
Angus and John, the latter of whom was dead before 16th
December 1478. The elder son, Angus, married a daughter of the earl of
Argyle.
The
resignation of the earldom of Ross and of the lands of Kintyre and
Knapdale, had irritated the island chiefs descended from the original
family, and while the Macleans, Macneills, Macleods, and other tribes
adhered to the lord of the Isles, the various branches of the clan
joined his turbulent son and heir, Angus, who, early accustomed to
rebellion, and of a violent temper, soon obtained an ascendency over
his father, and had great influence with his vassals. Kenneth
Mackenzie of Kintail having repudiated his wife, Lady Margaret of the
Isles, sister of Angus, a quarrel was the consequence, and the latter,
assisted by his kinsmen, resolved to make it a pretence to regain
possession of the whole or a part of the earldom of Ross. Accordingly,
at the head of a numerous band of Island warriors, he invaded that
district. The earl of Athol was sent against him, and was joined by
the Mackenzies, Mackays, Frasers, and others. A conflict ensued at a
place called Lagebread, where they were defeated by Angus, with great
slaughter. The earls of Crawford and Huntly were then sent against
him, the one by sea and the other by land; but neither of them was
successful. A third expedition, under the earls of Argyle and Athol,
was accompanied by Angus’ father, and several families of the Isles
joined the royal force.
Argyle and
Athol procured an interview between Angus and his father, in the hope
of bringing about an accommodation between them; but in this they were
disappointed, and the two earls returned without effecting anything.
The lord of the Isles, however, proceeded onward through the Sound of
Mull, accompanied by the Macleans, Macleods, Macneills, and others,
and having encountered Angus in a bay of the Island of Mull, near
Tobermory, a desperate battle ensued, in which Angus was again
victorious. This engagement is traditionally called “The Battle of the
Bloody Bay,” and by it Angus obtained possession of the extensive
territories of his clan, and was recognised as its head. John was
afterwards reconciled to his son, who, however, does not appear to
have made any surrender, in consequence, of his power or influence.
Having once more thrown off his allegiance to the throne, he engaged
in a treaty with Edward IV., who was then preparing to invade
Scotland, and, during the remainder of his life, continued in a state
of open resistance to the government.
Some time
after the battle of the Bloody Bay, the earl of Athol crossed
privately to Isla, and carried off the infant son of Angus, called
Donald Dubh, or “the Black.” Having been placed in the hands of his
maternal grandfather, Argyle, he was carefully guarded in the castle
of Inchconnel, in Lochow. When Angus discovered by whom his child had
been carried off, summoning his adherents, he sailed to the
neighbourhood of Inverlochy, where he left his galleys. He then made a
rapid and secret march into the district of Athol, where he committed
the most appalling excesses. This expedition is known as “the Raid of
Athol.” The earl of Athol and his countess took refuge in a chapel
dedicated to St. Bride, whence they were dragged by the ferocious
chief, and his followers, loaded with plunder, conveyed them to
Inverlochy. Here he embarked them in the galleys, and sailed for Isla;
but in the voyage from Lochaber, many of his galleys sunk in a
dreadful storm, with all the plunder with which they were laden.
Believing this loss to have been occasioned by his desecration of the
chapel of St. Bride, he soon liberated his prisoners, and even
performed a humiliating penance in the chapel he had violated. After
this event he marched to Inverness to attack Mackenzie of Kintail,
when he was assassinated by an Irish harper sometime between 1480 and
1490.
The rank of
heir to the lordship of the Isles devolved on the nephew of John,
Alexander of Lochalsh, son of his brother, Celestine. Placing himself
at the head of the vassals of the Isles, he endeavoured, it is said,
with John’s consent, to recover possession of the earldom of Ross, and
in 1491, at the head of a large body of western Highlanders, he
advanced from Lochaber into Badenoch, where he was joined by the clan
Chattan. They then marched to Inverness, where, after taking the royal
castle, and placing a garrison in it, they proceeded to the
north-east, and plundered the lands of Sir Alexander Urquhart, sheriff
of Cromarty. They next hastened to Strathconnan, for the purpose of
ravaging the lands of the Mackenzies. The latter, however, surprised
and routed the invaders, and expelled them from Ross, their leader,
Alexander of Lochalsh, being wounded, and as some say, taken prisoner.
In consequence of this insurrection, at a meeting of the Estates in
Edinburgh in May 1493, the title and possessions of the lord of the
Isles were declared to be forfeited to the crown. In January following
the aged John appeared in presence of the king, and made a voluntary
surrender of his lordship, after which he appears to have remained for
some time in the king’s household, in the receipt of a pension. He
finally retired to the monastery of Paisley, where he died about 1498;
and was interred, at his own request, in the tomb of his royal
ancestor, Robert II.
With the
view of reducing the insular chiefs to subjection, and establishing
the royal authority in the Islands, James IV., soon after the
forfeiture in 1493, proceeded in person to the West Highlands, when
Alexander of Lochalsh, the principal cause of the insurrection which
had led to it, and John of Isla, grandson and representative of Donald
Balloch, were among the first to make their submission. On this
occasion they appear to have obtained royal charters of the lands they
had previously held under the lord of the Isles, and were both
knighted. In the following year the king visited the Isles twice, and
having seized and garrisoned the castle of Dunaverty in South Kintyre,
Sir John of Isla, deeply resenting this proceeding, collected his
followers, stormed the castle, and hung the governor from the wall, in
the sight of the king and his fleet. With four of his sons, he was
soon after apprehended at Isla, by MacIean of Ardnamurchan, and being
conveyed to Edinburgh, they were there executed for high treason.
In 1495 King
James assembled an army at Glasgow, and on the 18th May, he
was at the castle of Mingarry in Ardnamurchan, when several of the
Highland chiefs made their submission to him. IN 1497 Sir Alexander of
Lochalsh again rebelled, and invading the more fertile districts of
Ross, was by the Mackenzies and Munroes, at a place called Drumchatt,
again defeated and driven out of Ross. Proceeding southward among the
Isles, he endeavoured to rouse the islanders to arms in his behalf,
but without success. He was surprised in the island of Oransay, by
MacIean of Ardnamurchan, and put to death.
In 1501,
Donald Dubh, whom the islanders regarded as their rightful lord, and
who, from his infancy, had been detained in confinement in the castle
of Inchconnell, escaped from prison, and appeared among his clansmen.
They had always maintained that he was the lawful son of Angus of the
Isles, by his wife the Lady Margaret Campbell, daughter of the first
earl of Argyle, but his legitimacy was denied by the government when
the islanders combined to assert by arms his claims as their
hereditary chief. His liberation he owed to the gallantry and fidelity
of the men of Glencoe. Repairing to the isle of Lewis, he put himself
under the protection of its lord, Torquil Macleod, who had married
Katherine, another daughter of Argyle, and therefore sister of the
lady whom the islanders believed to be his mother. A strong
confederacy was formed in his favour, and about Christmas 1503, an
irruption of the islanders and western clans under Donald Dubh was
made into Badenoch, which was plundered and wasted with fire and
sword. To put down this formidable rebellion, the array of the whole
kingdom, north of Forth and Clyde, was called out; and the earls of
Argyle, Huntly, Crawford, and Marischal, and the Lord Lovat, with
other powerful barons, were charged to lead this force against the
islanders. But two years elapsed before the insurrection was finally
quelled. In 1505, the Isles were again invaded from the south by the
king in person, and from the north by Huntly, who took several
prisoners, but none of them of any rank. In these various expeditions
the fleet under the celebrated Sir Andrew Wood and Robert Barton was
employed against the islanders, and at length the insurgents were
dispersed. Carniburg, a strong fort on a small isolated rock, near the
west coast of Mull, in which they had taken refuge, was reduced; the
Macleans and the Macleods submitted to the king, and Donald Dubh,
again made a prisoner, was committed to the castle of Edinburgh, where
he remained for nearly forty years. After this the great power
formerly enjoyed by the lords of the Isles was transferred to the
earls of Argyle and Huntly; the former having the chief rule in the
south isles and adjacent coasts, while the influence of the latter
prevailed in the north isles and Highlands.
The children
of Sir Alexander of Lochalsh, the nephew of John the fourth and last
lord of the Isles, had fallen into the hands of the king, and as they
were all young, they appear to have been brought up in the royal
household. Donald, the eldest son, called by the Highlanders, Donald
Galda, or the foreigner, from his early residence in the Lowlands, was
allowed to inherit his father’s estates, and was frequently permitted
to visit the Isles. He was with James IV. At the battle of Flodden,
and appears to have been knighted under the royal banner on that
disastrous field. Two months after, in November 1513, he raised
another insurrection in the Isles, and being joined by the Macleods
and Macleans, was proclaimed lord of the Isles. The number of his
adherents daily increased. But in the course of 1515, the earl of
Argyle prevailed upon the insurgents to submit to the regent. At this
time Sir Donald appeared frequently before the council, relying on a
safe-conduct, and his reconciliation to the regent (John, duke of
Albany) was apparently so cordial that on 24th September
1516, a summons was despatched to “Monsieur de Ylis,” to join the
royal army, then about to proceed to the borders. Ere long, however,
he was again in open rebellion. Early in 1517, he razed the castle of
Mingarry to the ground, and ravaged the whole district of Ardnamurchan
with fire and sword. His chief leaders now deserted him, and some of
them determined on delivering him up to the regent. He, however,
effected his escape, but his two brothers were made prisoners by
Maclean of Dowart and Macleod of Dunvegan, who hastened to make their
submission to the government. Soon after the earl of Argyle, with the
Macleans of Dowart and Lochbuy, and Macleod of Harris, presented to
the council certain petitions and offers relating to the suppression
of the rebellion. In the following year, Sir Donald was enabled to
revenge the murder of his father on the MacIeans of Ardnamurchan,
having defeated and put to death their chief and two of his sons, with
a great number of his men. He was about to be forfeited for high
treason, when his death, which took place a few weeks after his
success against the MacIeans, brought the rebellion, with had lasted
for upwards of five years, to a sudden close. He was the last male of
his family, and died without issue.
In 1539,
Donald Gorme of Sleat claimed the lordship of the Isles, as lawful
heir male of John earl of Ross. With a considerable force he passed
over into Ross-shire, where, after ravaging the district of Kinlochew,
he proceeded to Kintail, with the intention of surprising the castle
of Elandonan, at that time almost without a garrison. Exposing himself
rashly under the walls, he received a wound in the foot from an arrow,
which proved fatal.
In 1543,
under the regency of the earl of Arran, Donald Dubh, the grandson of
John, last lord of the Isles, again appeared upon the scene. Escaping
from his long imprisonment, he was received with enthusiasm by the
insular chiefs, and with their assistance, he prepared to expel the
earls of Argyle and Huntly from their acquisitions in the Isles. At
the head of 1,800 men he invaded Argyle’s territories, slew many of
his vassals, and carried off a great quantity of cattle, with other
plunder. At first he was supported by the earl of Lennox, then
attached to the English interest, and thus remained for a time in the
undisputed possession of the Isles. Through the influence of Lennox,
the islanders agreed to transfer their alliance from the Scottish to
the English crown, and in June 1545, a proclamation was issued by the
regent Arran and his privy council against “Donald, alleging himself
of the Isles, and other Highland men, his parttakers.” On the 28th
July of that year, a commission was granted by Donald, “lord of the
Isles, and earl of Ross,” with the advice and consent of his barons
and council of the Isles, of whom seventeen are named, to two
commissioners, for treating, under the directions of the earl of
Lennox, with the English king. On the 5th of August, the
lord and barons of the Isles were at Knockfergus in Ireland, with a
force of 4,000 men and 180 galleys, when they took the oath of
allegiance to the king of England, at the command of Lennox; while
4,000 men in arms were left to guard and defend the Isles in his
absence. Donald’s plenipotentiaries then proceeded to the English
court with letters from him both to King Henry and his privy council;
by one of which it appears that the lord of the Isles had already
received from the English monarch the sum of one thousand crowns, and
the promise of an annual pension of two thousand. Soon after the lord
of the Isles returned with his forces to Scotland, but appears to have
returned to Ireland again with Lennox. There he was attacked with
fever, and died at Drogheda, on his way to Dublin. With him terminated
the direct line of the lords of the Isles
The lordship
of the Isles, annexed on 3d Dec. 1540 inalienably to the crown, forms
one of the titles of the prince of Wales.
[Got in a wee email
from Ranald MacDonald...
Enjoyed this week's Newsletter and in
particular the reference to Isles and Somerled my direct male
ancestor.
Tales and stories of Somerled are not
complimentary. He cleansed the Western Seaboard of Scotland from the
invading Viking hordes. He was selected by the Men of the Isles as
their leader and rose to the occasion. His territory was not granted
to him by a mainland King. He was indeed Rex Insularum and held his
land by the ancient Celtic tradition of 'Swordland'. If you wanted to
contest his right, you had to fight and prove it. No Feudal sheepskin
title would hold any sway with a man of his stature. No Gael worth his
salt would submit to a mainland king of doubtful Gael ancestry.
He was not defeated at Refrew in c1164. He
was murdered in his tent on the battlefield before the battle
commenced. It was a political plot, known and established. His body
was taken to Saddell Monastery which he built, and not Iona where some
historians have indicated his place of burial.
And on the point of the name of
Constantine High King of Ireland his direct male ancestor. His correct
title is Conn cead cathach.
Ceapach]
