King James, in an effort to solve…
December 1503 CE
King James, in an effort to solve the problem of controlling Scotland’s restive north and west Highlands, has puts power, but not land, in the hands of the Campbells, his “Lord-Lieutenants of the Isles.” Domhnall Dubh, the son of the assassinated rebel leader Aonghas Óg, chief of Clan Donald, and the grandson of John of Islay, Earl of Ross, and Lord of the Isles, was born in the late fifteenth century in the Western isles of Scotland.
John of Islay in 1476 had been stripped by the Scottish crown of many of his lands and titles, retaining the title Lord of the Isles, but only at the pleasure of the Crown.
Domhnall's father Aonghas, disgusted by this family humiliation, had turned against John of Islay, rebelling against first his father and then the Scottish crown, both of which he defeated before being murdered in 1490 by his Irish musician.
Following Aonghas' death in 1490, the crown had launched a new campaign against the rebels of the northwest.
Domhnall Dubh, who was then just an infant, had been captured by Cailean I, Earl of Argyll.
Domhnall has remained imprisoned in Innischonnel Castle in Loch Awe.
Domhnall in 1501 had escaped with the aid of Torcall MacLeòid, who may have had the connivance of the earl of Argyll.
Torcall was looking for a way to resist the power of his enemy Alexander Gordon, the earl of Huntly, who was acting as the King's lieutenant.
A royal council on August 13, 1502, decreed that Torcall was guilty of rebellion and had no right to the lands under his possession.
Huntly had been ordered to gather forces in the north and take possession of the MacLeoid lands.
Moreover, the king prepared to deliver Eoin, now a semiretired courtier, back to the lordship in order to counter the effect given by the presence of Domhnall Dubh.
Eoin, however, never made the trip, taking ill in 1503 and dying at Dundee.
Torcall and his ally Lachlan MacGill'Eain of Duart take the offensive against Huntly, and in December 1503 invade and wreak devastation to Huntly's Lordship of Badenoch.