After Balliol was deposed at the hands of Edward I, MacLellans still opposed Bruce, helping to re-capture Dumfries Castle following the murder of the rival claimant Sir John Comyn.

[2] One of these, Sir Alexander MacLellan was cited by the sixteenth-century historian David Hume of Godscroft (drawing on the monastic Book of Pluscarden) as the Scotsman who slew the duke of Clarence while fighting in French service at the Battle of Baugé in 1421.

These conflicts culminated when MacLellan rejected Douglas's appeal to join an aristocratic conspiracy against King James II.

[2] Patrick Gray escaped from the castle, and his vow of revenge was realized in brutal form when he stood at the forefront of the loyalist nobles who assassinated the earl of Douglas in front of the king at Stirling in February 1452.

Local tradition holds that the MacLellans themselves used the celebrated Scottish cannon Mons Meg to batter down Threave Castle in retribution for the murder of their chief.

[2] The MacLellan's use of the Mons-Meg cannon against Douglas became symbolized in an additional crest with A Mortar-Piece and the motto Superba frango which translates to I humble proud things.

[18] As the feud escalated n the following generation, the MacLellan estates were forfeited after repeated raids on the Kirkcudbrightshire lands of the Clan Douglas.

These events established the MacLellans as a bastion of support for the Stewart crown in a region prone to lawlessness and aristocratic powerplay.

Their affiliation was confirmed in 1488 when Sir Thomas MacLellan supported James III against the rebellion that ended in the death of the king after the Battle of Sauchieburn.

With most of the magnates of the south-west and the borders fighting in support of the insurrection, MacLellan's residence was burned to the ground after the monarch's defeat.

In the following generation, Sir Thomas Maclellan of Bombie fought for Mary, Queen of Scots at the Battle of Langside, and prospered subsequently under her son James VI.