A.D. 1424-1512.
KINGS OF SCOTLAND:--
James I., 1406-1436.
James II., 1436-1460.
James III., 1460-1488.
James IV., 1488-1513.
James I.--State of Country--Policy of the King to the Highland
Chiefs--Lord of the Isles--Disturbances in Sutherland--Barbarity
of a Robber--James’s Highland Expedition--Disturbances in
Caithness--Insurrection in the West under Donald Balloch--Lord
of the Isles invades Sutherland--Allan of Lorn--Machinations
of Edward IV. with Island Chiefs--Rebellion of Earl of Ross
--Lord of the Isles submits--Disturbances in Ross and Sutherland
--Wise Policy of James IV.--Visits Highlands--Feuds in
Sutherland--Highlanders at Flodden.
On the return of James I., in 1424, from his captivity in England, he
found Scotland, and particularly the Highlands, in a state of the
most fearful insubordination. Rapine, robbery, and an utter contempt
of the laws prevailed to an alarming extent, which required all the
energy of a wise and prudent prince, like James, to repress. When
these excesses were first reported to James, by one of his nobles, on
entering the kingdom, he thus expressed himself:--“Let God but grant
me life, and there shall not be a spot in my dominions where the
key shall not keep the castle, and the furze-bush the cow, though I
myself should lead the life of a dog to accomplish it.”[147] “At this
period, the condition of the Highlands, so far as is discoverable
from the few authentic documents which have reached our times,
appears to have been in the highest degree rude and uncivilized.
There existed a singular combination of Celtic and of feudal manners.
Powerful chiefs, of Norman name and Norman blood, had penetrated
into the remotest districts, and ruled over multitudes of vassals
and serfs, whose strange and uncouth appellatives proclaim their
difference of race in the most convincing manner.[148] The tenure of
lands by charter and seisin, the feudal services due by the vassal to
his lord, the bands of friendship or of manrent which indissolubly
united certain chiefs and nobles to each other, the baronial courts,
and the complicated official pomp of feudal life, were all to be
found in full strength and operation in the northern counties; but
the dependence of the barons, who had taken up their residence
in these wild districts, upon the king, and their allegiance and
subordination to the laws, were less intimate and influential than in
the Lowland divisions of the country; and as they experienced less
protection, we have already seen, that in great public emergencies,
when the captivity of the sovereign, or the payment of his ransom,
called for the imposition of a tax upon property throughout the
kingdom, these great northern chiefs thought themselves at liberty to
resist the collection within their mountainous principalities.
“Besides such Scoto-Norman barons, however, there were to be found in
the Highlands and Isles, those fierce aboriginal chiefs, who hated
the Saxon and the Norman race, and offered a mortal opposition to the
settlement of all intruders within a country which they considered
their own. They exercised the same authority over the various clans
or septs of which they were the chosen heads or leaders, which
the baron possessed over his vassals and military followers; and
the dreadful disputes and collisions which perpetually occurred
between these distinct ranks of potentates, were accompanied by
spoliations, ravages, imprisonments, and murders, which had at last
become so frequent and so far extended, that the whole country
beyond the Grampian range was likely to be cut off, by these abuses,
from all regular communication with the more pacific parts of the
kingdom.”[149]
Having, by a firm and salutary, but perhaps severe, course of policy,
restored the empire of the laws in the Lowlands, and obtained the
enactment of new statutes for the future welfare and prosperity
of the kingdom, James next turned his attention to his Highland
dominions, which, as we have seen, were in a deplorable state of
insubordination, that made both property and life insecure. The
king determined to visit in person the disturbed districts, and
by punishing the refractory chiefs, put an end to those tumults
and enormities which had, during his minority, triumphed over the
laws. James, in the year 1427, arrived at Inverness, attended by
his parliament, and immediately summoned the principal chiefs there
to appear before him. From whatever motives--whether from hopes of
effecting a reconciliation by a ready compliance with the mandate
of the king, or from a dread, in case of refusal, of the fate of
the powerful barons of the south who had fallen victims to James’s
severity--the order of the king was obeyed, and the chiefs repaired
to Inverness. No sooner, however, had they entered the hall where the
parliament was sitting, than they were by order of the king arrested,
ironed, and imprisoned in different apartments, and debarred all
communication with each other, or with their followers. It has been
supposed that these chiefs may have been entrapped by some fair
promises on the part of James, and the joy which, according to
Fordun, he manifested at seeing these turbulent and haughty spirits
caught in the toils which he had prepared for them, favours this
conjecture. The number of chiefs seized on this occasion is stated
to have amounted to about forty; but the names of the principal ones
only have been preserved. These were Alaster or Alexander Macdonald,
Lord of the Isles; Angus Dubh Mackay, with his four sons, who could
bring into the field 4,000 fighting men; Kenneth More and his
son-in-law, Angus of Moray, and Macmathan, who could muster 2,000
men; Alexander Macreiny of Garmoran and John Macarthur, each of whom
could bring into the field 1,000 followers. Besides these were John
Ross, James Campbell, and William Lesley. The Countess of Ross, the
mother of Alexander, the Lord of the Isles, and heiress of Sir Walter
Lesley, was also apprehended and imprisoned at the same time.[150]
[Illustration: James I.]
The king now determined to inflict summary vengeance upon his
captives. Those who were most conspicuous for their crimes were
immediately executed; among whom were James Campbell, who was
tried, convicted, and hanged for the murder of John of the Isles;
and Alexander Macreiny and John Macarthur, who were beheaded.
Alexander of the Isles and Angus Dubh, after a short confinement,
were both pardoned; but the latter was obliged to deliver up, as a
hostage for his good behaviour, his son Neill, who was confined on
the Bass rock, and, from that circumstance, was afterwards named
Neill-Wasse-Mackay.[151] Besides these, many others who were kept in
prison in different parts of the kingdom, were afterwards condemned
and executed.
The royal clemency, which had been extended so graciously to the
Lord of the Isles, met with an ungrateful return; for shortly after
the king had returned to his lowland dominions, Alexander collected
a force of ten thousand men in Ross and the Isles, and with this
formidable body laid waste the country; plundered and devastated the
crown lands, against which his vengeance was chiefly directed, and
razed the royal burgh of Inverness to the ground. On hearing of these
distressing events, James, with a rapidity rarely equalled, collected
a force, the extent of which has not been ascertained, and marched
with great speed into Lochaber, where he found the enemy, who,
from the celerity of his movements, was taken almost by surprise.
Alexander prepared for battle; but, before its commencement, he had
the misfortune to witness the desertion of the clan Chattan, and
the clan Cameron, who, to a man, went over to the royal standard.
The king, thereupon, attacked Alexander’s army, which he completely
routed, and the latter sought safety in flight.
Reduced to the utmost distress, and seeing the impossibility of
evading the active vigilance of his pursuers, who hunted him from
place to place, this haughty lord, who considered himself on a par
with kings, resolved to throw himself entirely on the mercy of the
king, by an act of the most abject submission. Having arrived in
Edinburgh, to which he had travelled in the most private manner,
the humbled chief suddenly presented himself before the king, on
Easter-Sunday, in the church of Holyrood, when he and his queen,
surrounded by the nobles of the court, were employed in their
devotions before the high altar. The extraordinary appearance of
the fallen prince denoted the inward workings of his troubled
mind. Without bonnet, arms, or ornament of any kind, his legs and
arms quite bare, his body covered with only a plaid, and holding
a naked sword in his hand by the point, he fell down on his knees
before the king, imploring mercy and forgiveness, and, in token of
his unreserved submission, offered the hilt of his sword to his
majesty. At the solicitation of the queen and nobles, James spared
his life, but committed him immediately to Tantallan castle, under
the charge of William Earl of Angus, his nephew. This took place in
the year 1429. The Countess of Ross was kept in close confinement
in the ancient monastery of Inchcolm, on the small island of that
name, in the Frith of Forth.[152] The king, however, relented, and
released the Lord of the Isles and his mother, after about a year’s
imprisonment.
About this period happened another of those bloody frays, which
destroyed the internal peace of the Highlands, and brought ruin and
desolation upon many families. Thomas Macneill, son of Neill Mackay,
who was engaged in the battle of Tuttum Turwigh, possessed the lands
of Creigh, Spaniziedaill, and Palrossie, in Sutherland. Having
conceived some displeasure at Mowat, the laird of Freshwick, the
latter, with his party, in order to avoid his vengeance, took refuge
in the chapel of St. Duffus, near the town of Tain, as a sanctuary.
Thither they were followed by Thomas, who not only slew Mowat and his
people, but also burnt the chapel to the ground. This outrage upon
religion and humanity exasperated the king, who immediately ordered
a proclamation to be issued, denouncing Thomas Macneill as a rebel,
and promising his lands and possessions as a reward to any one that
would kill or apprehend him. Angus Murray, son of Alexander Murray
of Cubin, immediately set about the apprehension of Thomas Macneill.
To accomplish his purpose, he held a secret conference with Morgan
and Neill Macneill, the brothers of Thomas, at which he offered,
provided they would assist him in apprehending their brother, his
two daughters in marriage, and promised to aid them in getting
peaceable possession of such lands in Strathnaver as they claimed.
This, he showed them, might be easily accomplished, with little or no
resistance, as Neill Mackay, son of Angus Dubh, from whom the chief
opposition might have been expected, was then a prisoner in the Bass,
and Angus Dubh, the father, was unable, from age and infirmity, to
defend his pretensions. Angus Murray also promised to request the
assistance of the Earl of Sutherland. As these two brothers pretended
a right to the possessions of Angus Dubh in Strathnaver, they were
easily allured by these promises; they immediately apprehended their
brother Thomas at Spaniziedaill in Sutherland, and delivered him
up to Murray, by whom he was presented to the king. Macneill was
immediately executed at Inverness, and Angus Murray obtained, in
terms of the royal proclamation, a grant of the lands of Palrossie
and Spaniziedaill from the king. The lands of Creigh fell into the
hands of the Lord of the Isles, as superior, by the death and felony
of Macneill.[153]
[Illustration: MACNEILL. (Tartan)]
In pursuance of his promise, Murray gave his daughters in marriage
respectively to Neill and Morgan Macneill, and with the consent and
approbation of Robert Earl of Sutherland, he invaded Strathnaver
with a party of Sutherland men, to take possession of the lands of
Angus Dubh Mackay. Angus immediately collected his men, and gave the
command of them to John Aberigh, his natural son, as he was unable to
lead them in person. Both parties met about two miles from Toung, at
a place called Drum-ne-Coub; but, before they came to blows, Angus
Dubh Mackay sent a message to Neill and Morgan, his cousins-german,
offering to surrender them all his lands and possessions in
Strathnaver, if they would allow him to retain Keantayle. This fair
offer was, however, rejected, and an appeal was therefore immediately
made to arms. A desperate conflict then took place, in which many
were killed on both sides; among whom were Angus Murray and his two
sons-in-law, Neill and Morgan Macneill. John Aberigh, though he
gained the victory, was severely wounded, and lost one of his arms.
After the battle Angus Dubh Mackay was carried, at his own request,
to the field, to search for the bodies of his slain cousins, but he
was killed by an arrow from a Sutherland man who lay concealed in a
bush hard by.
James I. made many salutary regulations for putting an end to the
disorders consequent upon the lawless state of the Highlands, and the
oppressed looked up to him for protection. The following remarkable
case will give some idea of the extraordinary barbarity in which
the spoliators indulged:--A notorious thief, named Donald Ross, who
had made himself rich with plunder, carried off two cows from a
poor woman. This woman having expressed a determination not to wear
shoes again till she had made a complaint to the king in person, the
robber exclaimed, “It is false: I’ll have you shod before you reach
the court;” and thereupon, with a brutality scarcely paralleled, the
cruel monster took two horse shoes, and fixed them on her feet with
nails driven into the flesh. The victim of this savage act, as soon
as she was able to travel, went to the king and related to him the
whole circumstances of her case, which so exasperated him, that he
immediately sent a warrant to the sheriff of the county, where Ross
resided, for his immediate apprehension; which being effected, he and
a number of his associates were sent under an escort to Perth, where
the court was then held. Ross was tried and condemned, he and his
friends being treated in the same manner as he had treated the poor
woman; and before his execution a linen shirt, on which was painted a
representation of his crime, was thrown over him, in which dress he
was paraded through the streets of the town, afterwards dragged at a
horse’s tail, and hanged on a gallows.[154]
The commotions in Strathnaver, and other parts of the Highlands,
induced the king to make another expedition into that part of his
dominions; previous to which he summoned a Parliament at Perth,
which was held on the 15th of October, 1431, in which a land-tax,
or “zelde,” was laid upon the whole lands of the kingdom, to defray
the expenses of the undertaking. No contemporary record of this
expedition exists; but it is said that the king proceeded to
Dunstaffnage castle, to punish those chiefs who had joined in Donald
Balloch’s insurrection; that, on his arrival there, numbers of these
came to him and made their submission, throwing the whole odium
of the rebellion upon the leader, whose authority, they alleged,
they were afraid to resist; and that, by their means, three hundred
thieves were apprehended and put to death.
For several years after this expedition the Highlands appear to
have been tranquil; but, on the liberation of Neill Mackay from
his confinement on the Bass, in the year 1437, fresh disturbances
began. This restless chief had scarcely been released, when he
entered Caithness, and spoiled the country. He was met at a place
called Sandsett; but the people who came to oppose his progress were
defeated, and many of them were slain. This conflict was called Ruaig
Hanset; that is, the flight, or chase at Sandsett.
About the same time a quarrel took place between the Keiths and some
others of the inhabitants of Caithness. As the Keiths could not
depend upon their own forces, they sought the aid of Angus Mackay,
son of Neill last mentioned, who had recently died. Angus agreed
to join the Keiths; and accordingly, accompanied by his brother,
John Roy, and a chieftain named Iain-Mor-Mac-Iain-Riabhaich, with
a company of men, he went into Caithness, and, joining the Keiths,
invaded that part of Caithness hostile to the Keiths. The people
of Caithness lost not a moment in assembling together, and met the
Strathnaver men and the Keiths at a place called Blare-Tannie.
Here a sanguinary contest took place; but victory declared for the
Keiths, whose success, it is said, was chiefly owing to the prowess
of Iain-Mor-Mac-Iain-Riabhaich, whose name was, in consequence, long
famous in that and the adjoining country.[155]
After the defeat of James, Earl of Douglas, who had renounced his
allegiance to James II., at Arkinholme, in 1454, he retired into
Argyleshire, 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 Cumbrays 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
Cumbrays. They also levied tribute upon Bute; carrying away a hundred
bolls of malt, a hundred marts, and a hundred marks of silver.”[156]
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 Neill
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.[157]
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.[158]
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 distinguished 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.[159]
Although at this period an account of Orkney and Shetland does not
properly belong to a history of the Highlands, as these islands
had for 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.[160]
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. Gillespie, 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-Pairc.
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 Neill of the Bass, having been killed at
Tarbert by a Ross, his son, John Riabhaich 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-Mac-Iain-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 Aldv-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.
[Illustration: ROSS. (Tartan)]
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-Mac-Iain-Abaraich, 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.[161]
The lawless state of society in the Highlands, which followed as
a consequence from the removal of the seat of government 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 have been vindicated, and
the sovereign might have calculated upon the support of powerful
and trustworthy auxiliaries in his domestic 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
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.”[162]
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 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
after the king’s return from the north, “Sir John of the Isles,” as
he is named in the treasurer’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 everywhere 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 Sutherland, as was
noted in Mackay’s infeftment, dated in 1449.[163] “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 Highlanders 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.
FOOTNOTES:
[147] Fordun a Goodal, vol. ii. p. 511.
[148] MS. Adv. Lib. Coll. Diplom. a Macfarlane, vol. i. p. 245.--MS.
Cart. Moray, 263.
[149] Tytler, vol. iii. pp. 250, 251.
[150] Fordun a Hearne, vol. iv. pp. 1283-4.
[151] Sir R. Gordon, p. 64.
[152] Fordun, vol. iv. p. 1286.
[153] Sir Robert Gordon, pp. 64, 65.
[154] Fordun a Goodal, vol. ii. p. 510.
[155] Sir R. Gordon, p. 69.
[156] _Auchinleck Chronicle_, p. 55.
[157] _Auchinleck Chronicle_, pp. 58, 59.
[158] _Rotuli Scotiæ_, vol. ii. p. 407.
[159] Ferrerius, p. 383.--Lesley _de Rebus Gestis Scotorum_, p. 300.
[160] Lesley’s _Hist._, p. 41.--Sir R. Gordon, p. 77.
[161] Sir R. Gordon, pp. 78, 79.
[162] Tytler, vol. iv. pp. 367, 368.
[163] Sir R. Gordon, p. 80.