History Of The Mackenzies [7]
services done at the battle of Largs. The charter is not extant, and its genuineness has been doubted." In a footnote, this learned antiquarian gives the text of the document, in the same terms as those in which they have been already quoted from another source, and which, he says, is "from a copy of the 17th century." "If the charter be genuine," he adds, "it is not of Alexander III., or connected with the battle of Largs (1263).
Two of the witnesses, Andrew, Bishop of Moray, and Henry de Baliol, Chamberlain, would correspond with the 16th year of Alexander II." He further says that "the writers of the history of the Mackenzies assert also charters of David II. (1360) and of Robert II. (1380) to `Murdo filius Kennethi de Kintail,' but without furnishing any description or means of testing their authenticity. No such charters are recorded."
This is emphatic enough and to every unprejudiced mind absolutely conclusive. The sixteenth year of the reign of Alexander II. was 1230; for he ascended the throne in 1214. It necessarily follows that the charter, if signed at all, must have been signed thirty-three years before the battle of Largs, and thirty-six years earlier than the actual date written on the document itself. If it had any existence before it appeared in the Earl of Cromartie's manuscript of the seventeenth century, it must have been written during the lives of the witnesses whose names attest it.
That is, according to those who maintain that Colin Fitzgerald was the progenitor of the Mackenzies, thirty-one years before that adventurer ever crossed the Irish Channel, and probably several years before he was born, if he ever existed elsewhere than in the Earl of Cromartie's fertile imagination.
But this is not all. It has long been established beyond any possible doubt that the Earls of Ross were the superiors of the lands of Kintail during the identical period in which the same lands are said to have been held by Colin Fitzgerald and his descendants as direct vassals of the Crown. Ferchard Mac an t-Sagairt, Earl of Ross, received a grant of the lands of Kintail from Alexander II. for services rendered to that monarch in 1222, and he is again on record as their possessor in 1234, four years after the latest date on which the reputed charter to Colin Fitzgerald, keeping in view the witnesses whose names appear on the face of it, could possibly have been a genuine document. Even the most prominent of the clan historians who have so stoutly maintained the Fitzgerald theory felt bound to admit that, "it cannot be disputed that the Earl of Ross was the Lord paramount under Alexander II., by whom Farquhard Mac an t-Sagairt was recognised in the hereditary dignity of his predecessors, and who, by another tradition," Dr George Mackenzie says, "was a real progenitor of the noble family of Kintail." That the Earls of Ross continued lords paramount long after the death of Colin Fitzgerald, which event is said to have taken place in 1278, will be incontestibly proved.
But meantime let us return to the Origines Parochiales Scotiae. There we have it stated on authority which no one whose opinion is worth anything will for a moment call in question. The editor of that remarkable work says: -- "In 1292 the Sheriffdom of Skye erected by King John Baliol, included the lands of the Earl of Ross in North Argyle, a district which comprehended Kintail and several other large parishes in Ross (Acts of Parliament of Scotland, Vol. 1. p. 917). Between 1306 and 1329 King Robert Bruce confirmed to the Earl of Ross all his lands including North Argyle (Robertson's Index, p. 16, No. 7; Register of Moray, p. 342). in 1342, William, Earl of Ross, the son and heir of the deceased Hugh, Earl of Ross, granted to Reginald, the son of Roderick (Ranald Rorissoune or MacRuaraidh) of the Isles, the ten davochs (or pennylands) of Kintail in North Argyle (Robertson's Index, p. 48, No. 1; p. 99; p. 100, No. 1).
The grant was afterwards confirmed by King David II. (Robertson's Index).
Two of the witnesses, Andrew, Bishop of Moray, and Henry de Baliol, Chamberlain, would correspond with the 16th year of Alexander II." He further says that "the writers of the history of the Mackenzies assert also charters of David II. (1360) and of Robert II. (1380) to `Murdo filius Kennethi de Kintail,' but without furnishing any description or means of testing their authenticity. No such charters are recorded."
This is emphatic enough and to every unprejudiced mind absolutely conclusive. The sixteenth year of the reign of Alexander II. was 1230; for he ascended the throne in 1214. It necessarily follows that the charter, if signed at all, must have been signed thirty-three years before the battle of Largs, and thirty-six years earlier than the actual date written on the document itself. If it had any existence before it appeared in the Earl of Cromartie's manuscript of the seventeenth century, it must have been written during the lives of the witnesses whose names attest it.
That is, according to those who maintain that Colin Fitzgerald was the progenitor of the Mackenzies, thirty-one years before that adventurer ever crossed the Irish Channel, and probably several years before he was born, if he ever existed elsewhere than in the Earl of Cromartie's fertile imagination.
But this is not all. It has long been established beyond any possible doubt that the Earls of Ross were the superiors of the lands of Kintail during the identical period in which the same lands are said to have been held by Colin Fitzgerald and his descendants as direct vassals of the Crown. Ferchard Mac an t-Sagairt, Earl of Ross, received a grant of the lands of Kintail from Alexander II. for services rendered to that monarch in 1222, and he is again on record as their possessor in 1234, four years after the latest date on which the reputed charter to Colin Fitzgerald, keeping in view the witnesses whose names appear on the face of it, could possibly have been a genuine document. Even the most prominent of the clan historians who have so stoutly maintained the Fitzgerald theory felt bound to admit that, "it cannot be disputed that the Earl of Ross was the Lord paramount under Alexander II., by whom Farquhard Mac an t-Sagairt was recognised in the hereditary dignity of his predecessors, and who, by another tradition," Dr George Mackenzie says, "was a real progenitor of the noble family of Kintail." That the Earls of Ross continued lords paramount long after the death of Colin Fitzgerald, which event is said to have taken place in 1278, will be incontestibly proved.
But meantime let us return to the Origines Parochiales Scotiae. There we have it stated on authority which no one whose opinion is worth anything will for a moment call in question. The editor of that remarkable work says: -- "In 1292 the Sheriffdom of Skye erected by King John Baliol, included the lands of the Earl of Ross in North Argyle, a district which comprehended Kintail and several other large parishes in Ross (Acts of Parliament of Scotland, Vol. 1. p. 917). Between 1306 and 1329 King Robert Bruce confirmed to the Earl of Ross all his lands including North Argyle (Robertson's Index, p. 16, No. 7; Register of Moray, p. 342). in 1342, William, Earl of Ross, the son and heir of the deceased Hugh, Earl of Ross, granted to Reginald, the son of Roderick (Ranald Rorissoune or MacRuaraidh) of the Isles, the ten davochs (or pennylands) of Kintail in North Argyle (Robertson's Index, p. 48, No. 1; p. 99; p. 100, No. 1).
The grant was afterwards confirmed by King David II. (Robertson's Index).