Clann Ruaidhrí

[note 1] The eponymous ancestor of the family was Ruaidhrí mac Raghnaill, a principal member of Clann Somhairle in the thirteenth century.

There is reason to suspect that the lines of the family may have continued on, albeit in a much diminished capacity, with one apparent member holding power as late as the early fifteenth century.

[53] On one hand, these seaborne operations may have been undertaken in the context of supporting the Irish interests of Rǫgnvaldr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles, who seems to have been under pressure at about this period.

[61] The marital alliance appears to have been orchestrated in an effort to patch up relations between Clann Somhairle and the Crovan dynasty, neighbouring kindreds who had bitterly contested the kingship of the Isles for about sixty years.

[63] Since the majority of Ruaidhrí's territories appear to have been mainland possessions, it is very likely that the Scottish Crown regarded this reunification as a threat to its own claims of overlordship of Argyll.

[36] Apprehension of this rejuvenated island realm may have been one of the factors that led to Ruaidhrí's apparent expulsion from Kintyre by the royal forces of Alexander II, King of Scotland in the early 1220s.

[70] Along with Dubhghall's naval operations of the previous year, the marital alliance between the Uí Conchobhair and Clann Ruaidhrí appears to have formed part of a carefully coordinated plan to tackle English power in the north west of Ireland.

For example, the northern Hebridean islands of Lewis and Harris and Skye appear to have been held by the Crovan dynasty, then represented by the reigning Haraldr Óláfsson, King of the Isles.

[82] Although the Scottish Crown appears to have attempted to purchase the Isles earlier that decade,[83] Eóghan's acceptance of Hákon's commission led Alexander II to unleash an invasion of Argyll in the summer of 1249, directed at the very heart of the Clann Dubhghaill lordship.

[93] In July 1263, this armada disembarked from Norway, and by mid August, Hákon reaffirmed his overlordship in Shetland and Orkney, forced the submission of Caithness, and arrived in the Hebrides.

[98] Not only had Hákon failed to break Scottish power, but Alexander III seized the initiative in the following year, and oversaw a series of invasions into the Isles and northern Scotland.

[109] On the other hand, the family's position in Garmoran and the Hebrides may have stemmed from its marital alliance with the Crovan dynasty, an affiliation undertaken at some point before Ruaidhrí's expulsion from Kintyre.

In the wake of the Scots' acquisition of the Isles, and Dubhghall's death within the decade, Clann Ruaidhrí disappears from the Scottish historical record.

[119] That year, Magnús' illegitimate son, Guðrøðr, led a revolt on Mann against the Scottish Crown, and Alexander III responded by sending a massive invasion force to restore royal authority.

[121] In 1284, Ailéan was one of the many Scottish magnates who attended a government council at Scone which acknowledged Margaret, granddaughter of Alexander III, as the king's rightful heir.

[123] In 1293, in an effort to maintain peace in the western reaches of his realm, John, King of Scotland established the shrievalties of Skye and Lorn.

In this particular communiqué, William II recalled a costly military campaign which he had conducted in the 1290s against rebellious Hebridean chieftains—including Lachlann himself—at the behest of the then-reigning John (reigned 1292–1296).

[138] These dispatches seem to reveal that Lachlann and Ruaidhrí were focused upon seizing control of Skye and Lewis and Harris from the absentee Earl of Ross,[139] a man who endured imprisonment in England from 1296 to 1303.

[143] Two years later, Robert Bruce VII, Earl of Carrick, a claimant to the Scottish throne, killed his chief rival to the kingship, John Comyn of Badenoch.

[145] According to a fourteenth-century chronicle, Ailéan's daughter, Cairistíona, played an instrumental part in Robert I's survival at this low point in his career, sheltering him along Scotland's western seaboard.

[164] On one hand, it is possible that the king orchestrated Ruaidhrí's succession to the lordship as a means of securing support from one of the most powerful families on the western coast.

[162] On the other hand, the fact that Cairistíona—a close personal ally of Robert I—had been superseded by Ruaidhrí—a man with a comparatively chequered career—could indicate that the latter's consolidation of control was instead the result of internal family politics.

[188] If correct, the man in question may be identical to Raghnall himself, which could indicate that his forfeiture was related to Cairistíona's attempt to alienate the Clann Ruaidhrí estate from him and transfer it into the clutches of the Caimbéalaigh kindred (the Campbells).

[203] At about this time, Raghnall received the rights to Kintail from William III, Earl of Ross, a transaction which was confirmed by the king that July.

[205] There is reason to suspect that the king's recognition of this grant may have been intended as a regional counterbalance of sorts, since he also diverted the rights to Skye from Eóin to William III.

[207] Bitterness between these two magnates appears to be evidenced in dramatic fashion by the assassination of Raghnall and several of his followers at the hands of the earl and his adherents.

[211] Although he was later to pay dearly for this act of disloyalty,[212] the episode itself evidences the earl's determination to deal with the threat of encroachment of Clann Ruaidhrí power into what he regarded as his own domain.

[224][note 8] Nevertheless, there is reason to suspect that a certain Eóghan—granted the thanage of Glen Tilt by Robert Stewart at some point before 1346—was an Irish-based brother of Raghnall and Áine,[227] brought back to Scotland to serve the military forces of the expanding Steward.

[237] On the other hand, Giolla Adhamhnáin's charter appears to indicate that the estates passed into the possession of his family by way of its descent from his maternal grandmother,[238] a woman who could have been an heiress of Clann Ruaidhrí.

[240] In fact, the seventeenth-century Sleat History claims that Clann Néill gained Boisdale from Áine's son, Gofraidh Mac Domhnaill.