Series 3 > Highland papers

212
MISCELLANEOUS
TREATY BETWEEN ARGYLL AND
O’DONNELL
Writing of the condition of Ireland in the years 1555-60,
Mr. Bagwell says : ‘ Ulster was in a state of more than usual
confusion. Manus O’Donnell, who had been constantly at war
with his father, was opposed by his son Calvagh, who had the
help of the Scots. They addressed him as illustrious Lord and
he went over to Scotland to claim the proffered aid. Returning
with a large force and with a piece of ordnance which the
annalists 1 inexplicably call a crooked gun, he entered Lough
Swilly, took his father prisoner and battered Greencastle and
another fortress on Lough Foyle. Calvagh thenceforth assumed
practical control of his clan.’2
The arrangement between Calvagh O’Donnell and the Scots
is set forth in detail in a document still extant at Inveraray.
It is a renewal or ratification in 1560 of a treaty or contract
made in 1555. The fourth Earl of Argyll died in 1558 and the
treaty was renewed in 1560 by his son the fifth Earl and
Calvagh O’Donnell. It is in Gaelic and the writing is of the
type common at that time in both Ireland and Argyll. It was
executed in duplicate, and the duplicate at Inveraray has the
signature of Calvagh O’Donnell.
Along with this document there is preserved a contemporary
precis in the vernacular of its contents. By the kindness of
the Duke of Argyll this is now printed along with a literal
translation of the treaty recently made for him by that
distinguished Celtic scholar the late Dr. Charles Plummer.
1555
This is the contract which was first made betuixt
Archibald Earl of Argyll to wit McCalen and his aires
and successors and the aires and successors of Calvach
O’ domnaill who was then feir or appeirand aire of Teir-
connell and the samen contract confirmed and ended
betwixt Archibald sone to the said Earle to wit McAllen
who hes [his] fathers estait with the consent and advice
of the Clane veguine and the wholl gentrie of Argyll on
the one pairt And the [said] Calvach O domnaill who hes
1 Vide Annals of the Four Masters, a.d. 1555.
! Ireland under the Tudors, by Richard Bagwell, Longmans, 1885, vol. i.
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