Matheson Collection > Clan Donald > Volume 1

JOHN DE ILE, EARL OF ROSS. 223
prosperity of the country. The welfare of the
nation is sacrificed to the private ambition of
factious nobles.
The Earl of Ross, whose loyalty, as we have seen,
was so conspicuous during the latter portion of the
reign of the late King, now that that strong
personality is removed from the helm of state,
allows himself once more to become the victim of
the Douglas faction. By a judicious combination of
firmness and moderation, the King had disarmed
the enmity of the Island Jjord, and had James
not been cut off so prematurely, there is every
reason to believe that John would have continued
loyal to the Scottish throne. The death of the
King, however, soon plunged the Scottish State into
the difficulties that are always inseparable from a
minorit}^ It will be remembered that the last Earl
of Douglas had been forfeited in all his estates, and
was now undergoing his sentence of banishment at
the Court of Edward IV. Douglas had, in the days
of his prosperity, maintained friendly intercourse
with the family of York, and now that Edward IV.
seemed in a fair way to crush the House of
Lancaster, Douglas would fain hope that the power
and influence of England might be directed towards
the restoration of his lost territories and position in
Scotland. Meantime the banished Earl watched
with deepest interest the passing phases of political
feeling between the English and Scottish crowns,
and he left no means unused to win his old ally,
the Earl of Ross, from the friendly relation in
which he now stood towards the Government of
the northern kingdom. As had often happened
in the past, the difficulties which England had to