Blair Collection > Critical dissertations on the origin, antiquities, language, government, manners, and religion, of the antient Caledonians, their posterity the Picts, and the British and Irish Scots

Principality of the IJles. 279
und fome others of inferior note. The latter had
Kintyre, lia, and feveral more of the fmaller E-
budes. The fucceiTors of thefe two brothers,
while tlie kingdom of Man and the llles remained
in the hands of Norwegian Princes, Hke thefe their
alHes, neighbours, and fometimesmafters, afflimed
the highell titles, and made an extraordinary fi-
gure for many ages. We have already feen that
John, the fon of Dugal, the fame who had revolt-
ed over to Alexander the Third, was dignified
with the name of King. The pofterity of Regi-
nald had pretenfions equally good to that appella-
tion, and were more than equally able to fupport
them. They accordingly bore the regal tide for
a long time. ■ While the more immediate defcen-
dants of Sumerled poflelTed the Sodorian IJles^ with
a kind of royal jurifdiction, the Nordureys^ or the
illes to the North of Ardnamurchan, were go-
verned by the viceroys fent thither by the Kings
of Man. Thefe viceroys or governors were gene-
rally the fons, or brothers, or kinfmen of the
reigning Princes. Of one of thofe lieutenants are
defcended the MacLeods -, a family once very pow-
erfiil in the Northern divifioa of the Ebudes.
Their defcent from the Kings of Man appears not
only from tradition, and the genealogical tables of
the fennachies, but likewife from the arms of the
family ; one branch of the two into which it has
been divided, above five centuries back, retaining
the tbree united legs, and the other a pip icitb its
fails furled.
Besides the petty Kings and powerful chief-
tains fprung from Sumerled and the Nordureian
governors, there were, in the two feveral divjfions
of the Weflern lOes, manv co -.Iderable himilies^
S 4. fom«