In 1579, upon information of mutual hostilities committed by their followers, the king and council commanded Sir Lachlan Mor Maclean and MacDonald, to subscribe assurances of indemnity to each other, under the pain of high treason, and the quarrel was, for the time, patched up by the marriage of MacDonald with MacLean's sister Mary.
In 1585, however, the feud came to a height, and after involving nearly the whole of the island clans on one side or the other, and causing its disastrous consequences to be felt throughout the whole extent of the Hebrides, by the mutual ravages of the contending parties, government interfered, and measures were at last adopted for reducing to obedience the turbulent chiefs, who had caused so much bloodshed and distress in the Isles.
He was released to accompany Andrew Knox, Bishop of the Isles and was present at Iona when the Statutes of Icolmkill was consented to.
MacDonald travelled to Edinburgh for an audience with the King and gave sureties for his reappearance before the Privy Council in May 1611.
By his wife, Mary, daughter of Hector Og Maclean of Duart, their children were: He also allegedly fathered three sons: