George Mackenzie, 2nd Earl of Seaforth

George Mackenzie, 2nd Earl of Seaforth (died 1651) was a Highland clan chief and Scottish nobleman, who played an equivocating role in Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

Following this victory, Seaforth met Montrose between Elgin and Forres and was held prisoner for several days, but was subsequently released, having apparently sworn allegiance to the King and having promised never again under any circumstances to take up arms against him.

The Reverend John Macrae (d. 1704) gave a lengthy account of the battle (in the Ardintoul manuscript) which suggested that there had been deliberate collusion between Montrose, Hurry and Seaforth.

The list provides an interesting snapshot of the perceived resources of some of the leading clan members of the time: Seaforth's involvement in public affairs did not prevent him from pursuing (in the manner of his forebears) his own more personal concerns.

In 1648 Seaforth again raised a body of 4000 men in the Western Islands and Ross-shire, whom he led south, to aid the King's cause, but after joining in a few skirmishes under Lanark, they returned home to "cut their corn which was now ready for their sickles."

During the whole of this period Seaforth's fidelity to the Royal cause was open to considerable suspicion, and when Charles I threw himself into the hands of the Scots at Newark, and ordered Montrose to disband his forces, Earl George, always trying to be on the winning side, came in to Middleton, and made terms with the Committee of Estates; but the Church, by whom he had previously been excommunicated, continued implacable, and would only agree to be satisfied by a public penance in sackcloth within the High Church of Edinburgh.

When Seaforth received the news of the disastrous defeat of the king's forces at Worcester, he fell into a profound melancholy and died in August 1651, in Schiedam, Holland.