stopped by a silk neckening f military stock, and thus he TE STE pointed Governor of the that he was honoured still revered there as the g one of the Commissions for the res the warm approval and frimiens a 10- married-viz, the eldest, r who served with distinction in t R.N., some time Naval Attacam all married. Shepherd expressed himself tea hinn I have sailed round tem Her vales are Her mountains are sa Her sons may be ritten i nem, III. DONALD "DE ISLA," or, of the Isles, from whom the Macdonalds derive their name. The share of his father's possessions which appears to have fallen to him comprised South Kintyre and Islay; but it is certain that he also came into possession, as head of the house, of his brother Roderick's lands, by themselves a very extensive patrimony. A period of great importance in the history of this distinguished family has now been reached, and it is disappointing to find how little is recorded of the career of this famous chief who had no small share in the most important events in the early part of the thirteenth century. Indeed it is quite impossible that he could have done otherwise, for though the ancient autocratic authority of the Clan over others was never recovered by the race of Somerled after the partition by Alexander II. of the great district of Argyle, the ultimate union of all the claims and rights of this ancient and potent house in the line of Donald raised the family and its chief anew, to a pitch of power and eminence in Scotland almost unequalled by any other family in the kingdom, certainly unequalled in the Western Isles. Donald, like all the Western chiefs, after the treaty of succession agreed to as the result of the battle of Largs, held his possessions directly from the Scottish King, and ever since his successors remained subjects of the Scottish crown, in spite of many successive rebellions on their part, invariably instigated by the English Government, to establish their independence in the Isles, and embarrass the Scots. Hugh Macdonald informs us that Donald succeeded his father "in the Lordship of the Isles and Thaneship of Argyle ;" that he went to Denmark, and took with him many of the ancient Danes of the Isles, such as "the Macduffies, and Macnagills;" that his uncle Dugall accompanied him; and that his own rights, and the peculiar rights he had to the Isles through his grandmother, daughter of Olave the Red, were then renewed to him by Magnus, King of Denmark. "After this, he and his uncle Dugall became enemies, so that at last he was forced to kill Dugall. After this King Alexander (King of Scotland) sent Sir William Rollock as messenger to him to Kin G tyre, desiring to hold the Isles of him, which he had now from the King of Denmark. Donald replied that his predecessors had their rights to the Isles from the Crown of Denmark, which were renewed by the present King thereof, and that he held the Isles of his Majesty of Denmark, before he renounced his claim to his Majesty. Sir William said that the King might grant the superiority of the Isles to whom he pleased. Donald answered to this that Olay the Red, and Godfrey the Black's father, from whom he had the most of the Isles, had the Isles by their conquest, and not from the King of Denmark or Scotland, so that he and Sir William could not end the debate in law or reasoning. Donald being advised by wicked councillors, in the dawning of the day surprised Sir William and his men. Sir William, with some of his men, were killed. He banished Gillies (his wife's father) out of the Isles to the glens of Ireland, where some of his offspring remain until this day. He killed Gillies' young son, called Callum Alin. He brought the MacNeills from Lennox to expel Gillies out of Kintyre. After this he went to Rome, bringing seven priests in his company, to be reconciled to the Pope and Church. These priests declaring his remorse of conscience for the evil deeds of his former life, the Pope asked if he was willing to endure any torment that the Church was pleased to inflict upon him? Donald replied that he was willing, should they please to burn him in a caldron of lead. The Church, seeing him so penitent, dispensed with him. Some writers assert that he had his rights from the Pope of all the lands he possessed in Argyle, Kintyre, and the rest of the continent. After he returned home, he built (rebuilt or enlarged) the monastery of Saddell in Kintyre, dedicating (it) to the honour of the Virgin Mary. He mortified 48 merks lands to that monastery, and the Island of Heisker to the Nuns of Iona. He died at Shippinage in the year 1289, and was buried at Icolumkill."* He imitated the liberality of his father to the Church, particularly to the monks of Paisley, to whom he gave ample testimony of his charity and goodwill, on the condition that "ille uxor sua, heredes sui, et homines sui, participes sint in perpetuum, omnium bonorum quæ in domo de Paslet, et in toto ordine Cluniascensi fient, tam in orationibus, quam in ceteris divinis servitiis." In the document he is designated "Dovenaldus, filius Reginaldi, filius Somerledi."+ He left two sons.— 1. Angus Mor MacDonald, his heir. 2. Alexander, according to Douglas, ancestor of the MacAlisters of Loup, and of the Alexanders of Menstrie, Earls of Stirling. This is corroborated by an old genealogical tree of the Macdonalds in our possession. He was also progenitor of Clann Alastair of Kintyre, and was married to a daughter of Lorn. Donald of the Isles died, as already stated, in 1289, and was succeeded by his eldest son, IV. ANGUS MOR MACDONALD, who was Chief at the time of Haco's expedition to the Western Isles in 1266, and who immediately joined him on his arrival with his fleet, and assisted him throughout the war, though it appears, in consequence of the treaty which was afterwards ar * Collectanes de Rebus Albanicus, pp. 288-9. + Wood's Douglas's Peerage, vol. ii., p. 6. ranged between the Kings of Scotland and Norway, that he did not suffer for his conduct, either in person or property. In 1284 he appeared at the convention at which the Maiden of Norway was declared heiress to the Crown of Scotland, on which occasion his support seems to have been purchased by a grant of Ardnamurchan. He confirmed his father's and grandfather's grants to the Abbey of Saddell, and granted further lands himself by four separate charters.* He also made a donation to the convent of Paisley of half a mark of silver "de domo suo proprio, et de singulis domibus per omnes terras suas de quibus fumum exit unum denari, singulis annis in perpetuum in puram elemosynam." He also gave the monastery of the same place the patronage of the Church of Kilkerran, in Kintyre, "pro salute animæ, Domini sui Alexandri Regis Scoticæ illustris, et Alexandri, filii ejus, etiam pro salute sua propria, et heredum suorum."+ A letter is addressed, in 1292, "to Anegous, the son of Dovenald of the Isles, and Alexander, his eldest son, respecting their comporting themselves well and faithfully to the King of England."+ Writing of the descendants of Somerled about this period, Gregory says that of these "there were, in 1285, three great noblemen, all holding extensive possessions in the Isles as well as on the mainland, who attended in that Scottish Parliament by which the crown was settled on the Maiden of Norway. Their names were Alexander de Ergadia of Lorn (son of Ewin of Lorn), Angus, the son of Donald, and Allan, the son of Ruarie. From the nature of the treaty, in 1266, it is obvious that these individuals were vassals of the King of Scotland for all their possessions, and not merely for what they held on the mainland, as some have supposed. It is further clear that, at this time, none of the three bore the title of Lord of the Isles, or could have been properly so considered; and it is equally certain that the first individual whom we find assuming the style of Lord of the Isles, in its modern signification, possessed all those Isles, and very nearly all those mainland estates, which, in 1285, were divided among three powerful noblemen of the same blood. But of this hereafter. From the preceding remarks, it will readily be perceived that the boasted independence of the modern Lords of the Isles is without historical foundation. Prior to 1266, the Isles were subject to Norway; at that date the treaty of cession transferred them to Scotland."§ Angus Mor, who, according to Hugh Macdonald, "was of a very amiable and cheerful disposition, and more witty than any could take him from his countenance," resided for a portion of his life-time at the Castle of Ardthornish. He married a daughter of Sir Colin Campbell of Glenurchy, with issue 1. Alexander, his heir. 2. Angus Og, who succeeded his brother Alexander. He died in 1300, and was succeeded by his eldest son, V. ALEXANDER MACDONALD of the Isles, who married one of the daughters and co-heiress of Ewen de Ergadia, the last of the male descendents of Dugall of Lorn, and by her he received a considerable ac * Skene's Highlanders. + Chartulary Lereuax, 186-187 b. |