Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 5

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174 THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.
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for lie dreaded that the King -would apprehend him. Patrick, Earl of ' |
Tullibardin, said, as the other noblemen were talking of the battle of
Harlaw, we know that Macdonald had the victory, but the Governor had i
tJie printer."* '
Summing up his description and the consequences of this famous engage- ' ^
ment, Burton, who with his characteristic hatred of the Highlanders, must of J
course call the result of this battle a " defeat " for the Islanders, says n
— '' So ended one of Scotland's most memorable battles. The contest be- ' I
tween the Lowlanders and Donald's host was a contest between foes, of ,
whom their contemporaries would have said that their ever being in
harmony with each other, or having a feeling of common interests and ■ s
common nationality, was not within the range of rational expectations. . . ; .
It will be difficult to make those not familiar with the tone of feeling in '
Lowland Scotland at that time believe that the defeat of Donald of the ' 1
Isles was felt as a more memorable deliverance than even that of Bannock- )
burn,"t ; '
According to the MS. History of the Mackintoshes quoted by Charlea | [
Eraser-Mackintosh in his " Invernessiana": — In this war Malcolm, or Cal- : ■!■
lum Beg, Chief of Mackintosh, "lost many of his friends, particularly James > d
Mackintosh (Shaw) of Eothiemurchus," who must have been confused '<
with the Chief himself, though, in point of fact, he lived until about 1467. ' i
In 1412 the same author finds from "the accounts of the great chamber- 1 «
lain of Scotland " that " payment is made to Lord Alexander, Earl of Mar, ' i,
for various labours and expenses incurred in the war against the Lord of i :
the Isles for the utility of the whole kingdom of £122 7s 4d ; and also to; \
him for the construction of a fortalice at Inverness, for the utility of the ' j
kingdom, against said Lord of the Isles, £100 ; and for lime to Inverness [ i
for the construction of said fortalice, and for food and the carriage of'
wood, £32 10s 3d. In 1414 payment is made to Lord Alexander, Earl i
of Mar, in consideration of his divers labours and expenses about the j
castle of Inverness, of £52 lis 3d." About the year 1398 Charles Mac-, a
giUeane, of the ancient house of Maclean of Mull, settled in the neigh- j j
bourhood of Lochness, under the protection of Donald, Lord of the Isles, ■ j
whose followers the Macleans were. •
It has been generally supposed that the resignation of the Earldom of '
Eoss by Euphemia the nun in favour of her grandfather, Eobert, Duke of : 1
Albany, was the sole and immediate cause of the battle of Harlaw ; but | (
the actual date of the instrument of resignation is 1415 — four years after i '
the famous battle ; and Skene thinks that the securing of the resignation 1 '
of the earldom in his favour at that date was rather an attempt on the part i t
of iUbany to give a colour of justice to his retention of what he was, by 1 !
the result of the battle of Harlaw, enabled to keep in his possession. ' ;
There is no doubt whatever that a claim on the earldom was the ostensible j ;
cause of the invasion by the Lord of the Isles, but the readiness with •
which, in the follo^ving summer, that claim was given up by a treaty con- ; (
eluded with the Governor at Port-Gilp, in Argyleshire — when Donald not i
only gave up the earldom, but agreed to become a vassal of the Crown, and to ' !
deliver hostages for his future good behaviour, while he might easily have , \
* Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis, pp. 300-2. i
tVol.iii., pp. 101-102. j;