John Gallda MacDougall

By the mid century, John Gallda was married to Johanna Isaac, a niece of David II, King of Scotland, and restored to a portion of the MacDougalls' originally holdings in Argyll.

Following his defeat to Robert I at the Battle of the Pass of Brander, John MacDougall fled to England where he spent the remainder of his life in the service of the English Crown.

John Gallda does not appear on record again until the 1350s, and it is possible that he was one of the men under Thomas Ughtred (died 1365), commander of the English forces at Perth, who were allowed to return to England following the Steward's successful siege.

Specifically, the islands of Colonsay, Gigha, Islay, (half of) Jura, Lewis, Mull, Skye, and the mainland territories of Ardnamurchan, Kintyre, Knapdale, and Morvern were assigned to him.

[43] It seems that John Gallda relocated to Scotland at some point in the early 1350s,[45] for he next appears on record in 1354, when he and the aforesaid Lord of the Isles, a man who headed the MacDougalls' traditional rivals the MacDonalds, signed a bond of peace between each other.

[51] The king finally secured his release in 1357,[52] and about the following year granted John Gallda all the possessions and rents that had formerly belonged to the latter's great-grandfather, Alexander MacDougall, Lord of Argyll (died 1310).

Furthermore, the king granted John Gallda certain fortresses in the possession of the Lord of the Isles,[53] a gift that could refer to the castles outlined in the aforesaid agreement of 1354, and therefore evidencing the MacDougall's restoration on Mull and other island territories.

[63][note 6] In theory the marriage meant that any children of the couple potentially possessed a claim in the royal succession,[65] and may have been regarded as a threat to the leading claimant, and eventual successor, the aforesaid Robert Stewart, David II's nephew.

[68] John Gallda's royal support and relocation appears to have been due to the fact that David II regarded him as a potential ally against the machinations of the aforesaid Robert Stewart, and the latter's western confederates.

[73] As for John Gallda, however, he had no links with the Steward,[74] and the Scottish Crown may have consequently considered the MacDougall as a reliable means to fill the western power vacuum created by the murder of Ranald MacRuairi (died 1346).

[78][note 7] The fact that he was able to succeed in Argyll at all, after almost a forty years of his family's absence, reveals not only the strength of family-loyalties, but also the apparent resentment of MacDonald encroachment and overlordship.

[84] By the end of the 1350s, the borders of the MacDougall and Campbell lands appears to have been amicably settled, and the families bound themselves together through the marriage of Archibald's son and successor to an apparent kinswoman of John Gallda.

[91] Certainly the MacDougalls and MacDonalds were long-time rivals, however the absence of the two men may well have been due to the prospect of the aforesaid military service, or by the reassessment of their taxes that year, for it was later recorded that John Gallda had refused to allow royal officials review his Argyllshire lands.

[93] As with the aforesaid assembly, the violence and tax avoidance in the Highlands and Islands appears to have been the main point of business, and one of the magnates singled out for oaths of obedience was John Gallda himself.

[96] These endowments may well have been an attempt by the Scottish Crown to win back the support of John Gallda as a means to counter the latter's powerful neighbours, the aforesaid Steward, Earl of Ross, and Lord of the Isles.

[101] Clearly John Gallda's close connection with David II, and his wife's royal Bruce ancestry, would have done little to endear the MacDougalls to the newly inaugurated Stewart monarch.

[106][note 9] In a similar way, the positive roles of the ancestors of John MacDonald and Archibald Campbell are seemingly inflated, and greatly influenced by the political realities of the late fourteenth century Stewart regime.

[119] According to Gesta Annalia II, after John Gallda's death Johanna married Malcolm Fleming of Biggar, a union which appears to be corroborated by a papal dispensation granted in 1377.

[120] In consequence of the marriages of John Gallda's daughters and widow, Robert II oversaw the neutralisation of potentially threatening competing claims to the royal succession.

One such family were the MacArthur Campbells of Strachur, who assigned their own claims to certain former MacDougall territories in Lorne to Duncan, Earl of Lennox (died 1425), a son-in-law of the aforesaid Lord of Loch Awe.

Coat of arms of the Lord of Argyll as it appears in the fourteenth-century Balliol Roll . [ 9 ] It corresponds to the seal of John Gallda's great-grandfather, Alexander MacDougall, Lord of Argyll . [ 10 ] [ note 1 ]
Nineteenth-century facsimile of a charter of John Gallda to his father's sister, Mary, wife of John of Stirling. [ 29 ] John Gallda granted the charter in 1338, whilst in the service of the English, during the occupation of Perth.
Seal of Edward Balliol as King of Scotland . [ 37 ]
Seal of David II, King of Scotland . [ 44 ]
Dunstaffnage Castle , a fortress built, held, and lost by John Gallda's MacDougall predecessors appears to have been one of several castles regained by John Gallda as a consequence of the restoration of the family's former lands in Lorne. [ 50 ]
David II (left) and Edward III, King of England (right) as pictured in the fourteenth-century British Library Cotton MS Nero D VI. [ 69 ]
Facsimile of the coat of arms of "Ye lord of lorn of auld" that appears in the sixteenth-century Sir David Lindsay's Armorial . [ 86 ]
View of Glen Lyon , granted to John Gallda in 1369.
Seal of Robert II, King of Scotland . [ 98 ]
Ruinous Achanduin Castle , on the island of Lismore , was built by John Gallda's MacDougall predecessors. There is reason to suspect that it remained in the hands of the family throughout the fourteenth century. [ 122 ] [ note 10 ]