Matheson Collection > Clan Donald > Volume 1

298 THE CLAN DONALD.
tide of affairs. Tlie King early next year visits
Kintyre to initiate his new policy. He grants a
commission of lieutenandry to Archibald, Earl of
Argyle, over the whole Lordship of the Isles, and
appoints him Keeper of the Castle of Tarbert and
Bailie of Kna})dale. He also gave the Earl a com-
mission to let on lease for three years the whole
Lordship of the Isles, except Kintyre and Isla.^
Thus it is only too evident who had induced the
King to change his plans in regard to the Govern-
ment of the Isles, The crafty A.rgyle succeeded in
persuading the evidently too impressionable James
that he had acted far too leniently towards the men
of the Isles, and that a less conciliatory policy would
in the long run prove the wisest. The King's
conduct in breaking faith with the Islanders and
yielding to the evil counsel of the wily schemer
cainiot be too severely condemned. It was conduct
altogether unworthy of a King, and such as to make
us suspect the genuineness of his motives in every
previous effort made by him to legislate for the
Islands. Argyle succeeded in attaining the object
of his ambition, but not, as we shall soon see, in
making the Islanders more law abiding, or more
loyal to the throne. His administration had, on
the contrary, the very opposite effect. It seems
that the King, no doubt at the instigation of
Argyle, had resolved to expel the Macdonald land-
holders from their possessions, as well as other
vassals who were supposed to be favourable to the
claims of Donald Dubh, and others, to the Lordship of
the Isles. As long as any claimant to the forfeited
Island honours remained there was danger of an insur-
rection in the Islands, and the King had evidently
>■ liegister of Ihe Privy Scil, Pook I., folio 3 ; also fol. 108, 122.