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James I in 1424, Scoto-Norman barons, Donald Balloch’s insurrection,
Neill Mackay, Keiths, and a general account of various battles and life
style in this reign.
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 require 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, an
the furze-bush the cow, though I myself should lead the life of a dog to accomplish
it." "A 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. 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 as which they were the chosen heads or
leaders, is which the baron possessed over his vassals and military followers; and the
dreadful disputes and collisions which perpetually occurred is between these distinct
ranks of potentates, and were accompanied by spoilations, 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."
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 Master 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 (Macreary?) 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.
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. 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. 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 Neil Mackay, who was engaged in the battle of
Tuttum-Turwigh, possessed the lands of Creigh, Spaniziedaill, and Palrossie, in a
Sutherland. Having conceived some displeasure at Mowat, the laird of Freshwick, the, 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 Macneil 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 Macneil]. To accomplish
his purpose, he held a secret conference with Morgan and Neil Macneil, 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 Neil 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 immedIiately apprehended their brother Thomas at
Spaniziedaill in Sutherland, and delivered him to Murray, by whom he was presented to the
king. Macneil 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 Macneil.
In pursuance of his promise, Murray gave his daughters in
marriage respectively to Neil and Morgan Macneil, and with the consent and probation 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 as 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 blows, Angus Dubh Mackay sent a message to Neil and Morgan, his
cousins-german, offering to surrender them all his lands and possessions in Strathnaver,
if they would allow him retain Keantayle. This fair offer was, however, rejected, and an
appeal was therefore imediately 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, Neil and Morgan Macneil. John Aberigh, though 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 near 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 fresh 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 met you shod before you reach the court;" and who thereupon,
with a brutality scarcely paralleled, and 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.
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 who had joined in Donald Balloch’s insurrection; that, on his arrival
there, numbers 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 aprehended and put to death.
For several years after this expedition the
Highlands appear to have been tranquil; but, 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 at
a place called Sandsett; but the people came to oppose his progress were defeated, 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, 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, chiefly owing
to the prowess of Iain-Mor-Iain-Riabhaich, whose name was, in concequence, long famous in
that and the adjoining country
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. |
