Page 172 of Bound By Honor
“Aye, it is time.”
The gifts King Robert rendered to Angus made the Macdonalds the most powerful clan on the northwestern seaboard. And yet, the next morning, the king told Angus, as a reward for faithfully fighting with him to win back Scotland and for his contribution at the battle of Bannockburn, he was bestowing upon Angus yet another honor. “I give the Macdonalds the honored position of the right wing of the Scots army forever.”
Angus was deeply touched by the great honor bestowed upon him and his clan. “You have won the peace, Rob, and it was my privilege to fight at your side.” They had both survived the long road to Scotland’s freedom. Angus knew there might be skirmishes and other battles ahead, for the English would be reluctant to admit Scotland was not theirs. But there would be none like Bannockburn. The English were beaten. “If there are more battles to come, it would be my desire to fight at your side.”
Angus was true to his word. For the rest of his life, he remained loyal to Robert Bruce, holding fast to the vow of honor he had made in his youth.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
In Somerled’s time (the 12thcentury), Norway ostensibly had sovereignty over Argyll and the Isles, but the Lords of the Isles were fiercely independent and rendered only nominal allegiance to the distant Norwegian crown. Today, “the Western Isles” refers to the Outer Hebrides, but in the 13thand 14thcenturies, the Western Isles included all the isles west of Scotland’s mainland. Hence, Edward I made Alexander MacDonald, and his brother after him, “Admiral of the Western Isles”.
After 1266 and the Treaty of Perth, following the inconclusive Battle of Largs in 1263, the Isles became subject to Scotland, and the Lords of the Isles were accepted into Scottish nobility while generally maintaining their independence. By the third quarter of the 13thcentury, Somerled’s descendants were making marriage alliances with Scottish nobility.
At the time of my story, the kingdom forged by Somerled, as told inSummer Warrior, had been divided among his descendants. The northernmost territory of Garmoran, along with the isles from Eigg to the Uists, became the territory of the MacRuaris, descended from Donald’s brother, Ruari. The power center of the Macdonald Lords of the Isles, including the lands of Angus Og and his brother Alexander, were Islay (pronounced Eye’ la) and Kintyre though their influence was felt across a much greater area, including the lands and isles eventually bestowed upon Angus Og by his friend Robert Bruce. The MacDougalls were the senior line but eventually were eclipsed by the Macdonalds. Both the Macdonalds and the MacRuaris would support King Robert and his brother Edward Bruce, which contributed greatly to their rise in prominence.
The MacDougalls, based in Lorne and Argyll, were not just the enemies of the Macdonalds. Aligned with the Balliols and power-hungry Comyns, they were also the enemies of the Bruces, including notably, King Robert Bruce. In choosing the wrong side in the First War of Independence, the MacDougalls eventually lost all.
I chose to begin my story in 1286 with the Turnberry Band because of its significance in light of the events that followed. It is known that Angus Og was ever loyal to Robert Bruce (Robert Bruce VII, eventually King Robert I) but, as far as I could determine through considerable research, no one knows exactly when their friendship began. I imagine they might have met and Angus pledged his honor when they were young. It is more than plausible given that their fathers came together that September to discuss Scotland’s fate and pledge themselves to a common purpose, including the Bruces’ claim to the throne. In those times, boys of twelve and fourteen would have been given much responsibility and might have tagged along.
There was this line inThe Macdonnells of Antrimby George Hill, written in 1873: “From the time in which Angus Og joined the party of Bruce, so early as the year 1286, his loyalty never faltered, even when the fortunes of the king became at times apparently hopeless.”
There is also evidence that Robert Bruce and/or his brothers fostered with their Gaelic kin, the O’Neills, in Tirowen. (SeeThe MacDonald Lordship and the Bruce Dynasty, c. 1306-c. 1371by Michael Penman, at p. 64: “As earls of Carrick and rightful lords of Upper Glenarm (Larne) the Bruces had married directly into this complicated Irish Sea world, an inheritance rendered all the more personal for the future Robert I by being fostered in childhood to Gaelic kin—probably along with his four brothers to the Carrick relatives, the O’Neills of Tyrone…”). Tyrone was the later name forTír Eoghain(Anglicized to the term I have used, “Tirowen”), which was a larger territory than the modern Tyrone. If that is the case, then the young Robert might have first met the Macdonalds and the O’Cahans earlier than 1286.
Angus Og “the noble and renowned chief of the Innsigall” (the Hebrides, or the “Isles of the Strangers”) has been remembered in historical accounts as “personable, modest and affable”, yet we know he was a formidable warrior. (He was several inches over six feet and would have carried many weapons and trained with the galloglass.) One historian has described the Macdonalds of that era as “the Hell’s Angels of the Hebrides” likely because of the galloglass they were known for. I put that together with my research and what emerged was a fierce warrior, a skilled fighter and a leader of men, who was also well liked. Angus was staunchly loyal to his friends, including Robert Bruce, to whom Angus had bound himself by the honor of Clan Donald and never wavered.
Angus brought thousands of Islesmen to fight alongside Robert Bruce at Bannockburn, securing the new king’s victory, a fact often omitted in accounts of the battle. For his valiant loyalty, King Robert honored Angus by bestowing upon him many isles and lands and giving the Macdonalds the honored position of the right flank of the Royal Scots Army—for always. The same position Angus held at Bannockburn.
Angus Og was Lord of Kintyre from his father’s death in 1293 to 1299 when, at his brother, Alexander’s death, he became Lord of the Isles. In researching history this far back I have seen many contradictory sources as to dates, names and even people. Some sources say Angus’ brother, Alexander, died later, fighting Robert Bruce. However, from all the sources I consulted, including Ian Ross Macdonnell, author ofClan Donald and Iona Abbey 1200-1500, I am persuaded that is not the case. Angus’ brother, Alexander, was loyal to the Bruces as were his father and younger brothers. He died in 1299 in Ireland, slain by Alexander MacDougall. From that year, Angus Og began acting as “The Macdonald” and Lord of the Isles, styling himself “Angus of Islay” the chief’s designated title.
Angus Og was killed in 1318, along with his eldest son and heir, Alexander, at the Battle of Faughart in Ireland. Angus had gone there at the request of his friend, King Robert, to fight with his brother, Sir Edward, who had become King of Ireland, and the O’Neills. They had hoped to rid Ireland of the English. Many Islesmen were killed in that battle, including some from my story: Ruari MacRuari, Sir Philip Mowbray and several Stewart cadets. It must have broken Áine’s heart to lose both her husband and eldest son. Her son, John, now the heir, was only eight.
Angus Og was buried at Iona in the manner of all Lords of the Isles. (You can see his grave slab on Iona today.) Eventually, he was succeeded by his younger son, John of Islay, half-brother to Brian Balloch O’Neill, Áine’s son by Niall Culanach O’Neill.
The close relationship between Angus Og and his younger brother, John, came from my imagination, but I think there may be a basis for it as each appeared to have named one of their sons after the other. Angus Og gave John the province of Ardnamurchan (the peninsula north of Morvern). I have no sources that say Angus Og’s brother, John, or Áine’s son, Brian O’Neill, fought alongside Angus Og at Bannockburn, however, I deem it very likely.
Angus had a “natural son”, Iain Fraoch (“John of the Heather”), by the daughter of Dugall MacEanruig, the “chief of Glen Coe”. The historical accounts of that son’s status conflict. He could not be a product of a handfasting, as some suggest, because a child born of such a union made the trial marriage permanent. Further, in the medieval era, handfasting represented the betrothal of the intended couple, not the actual marriage. Angus Og’s wife was Áine O’Cahan and there is no record of another. What is true is that Angus provided for this natural son, both a fostering in Lochaber and ultimately lands in Glen Coe (today “Glencoe”), which were among the lands Angus received from a grateful King Robert. Iain was the progenitor of the MacIains of Glencoe, also known as the MacDonalds of Glencoe.
Should you be wondering, Angus Mor’s younger brother, Alasdair Mor of Saddell (the father of Angus’ cousin, Duncan MacAlasdair), was also an “Alexander”. To make this less confusing in the midst of all the Alexanders I already had to deal with, I used another form of that name. Angus Og’s elder brother, Alexander, was actually “Alexander Og” to distinguish him from his uncle in the same way Angus Og was so named to distinguish him from his father.
Edward I, called “Longshanks” for his height (6 feet 2 inches, the same as Angus Og) was known for his arrogance, intimidating manner and his brutal conduct toward the Welsh and Scots, including William Wallace and Robert Bruce’s brothers and his women. He also issued the Edict of Expulsion in 1290, by which the Jews were expelled from England. The edict remained in effect for the rest of the Middle Ages. England was poorer for it. Many Jews found refuge in Scotland, France and the Netherlands.
Robert Bruce was excommunicated by Pope Clement V in 1306 for the killing of John “the Red” Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, in Greyfriars Kirk. In 1320, thirty-nine Scottish barons and earls signed a letter to Pope John XXII, which is known today as the Declaration of Arbroath. Their letter was an appeal to the pope to lift the excommunication of King Robert and recognize him as the rightful King of Scots. Angus Og Macdonald, Lord of the Isles, would undoubtedly have been a signatory to that document had he not been killed in 1318.
Meanwhile, Edward II continued to object to a free Scotland. In 1327 he was deposed by his nobles and senior clergy. He died that September, and the tale is told of murder with a red hot iron. It wasn’t until 1328 and the Treaty of Edinburgh that England gave up all claims to Scotland, and the pope lifted the excommunication. King Robert lived to see it. Finally, he had brought the Kingdom of Scotland to peace.
When I think of King Robert’s last years, I think of a man full of memories, who was grateful to God for allowing him to lead a free Scotland. Scotland’s hero-king died on June 7, 1329 in a manor house he built for himself at Cardross on the north shore of the Firth of Clyde, a place open to the sea lanes and the Isles, very Gaelic in nature. By then, he had lost his wife, his daughter, his brothers, his friend, Sir Angus Og Macdonald, Bishop Lamberton and Sir Walter Stewart, the High Steward. Perhaps Sir James Douglas, who was ever faithful, and his nephew, Sir Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, were with him at his death. I like to think so.
As is so often the case, we know more about the men than the women they loved. And that is where fiction comes into play. What historians tell us, I have used. Otherwise, what you have is a product of my imagination.
Áine O’Cahan (pronounced “awn-ya”), sometimes called Agnes or Margaret, was from a family of Irish nobles who had long supported the O’Neills of Ulster. She would have been intimately familiar with the internecine wars within the O’Neill clan, for her first husband, Niall Culanach O’Neill, had twice been King of Tirowen. (Ireland had many kings, the equivalent of English earls.) The last reign of Niall as king began in 1286 when he was installed by Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster. It was during this reign that I believe he married young Áine. O’Neill expert Dr. Elizabeth Simms, author ofGaelic Ulster in the Middle Ages, with whom I consulted on many issues, agrees with my deduction that it was Niall Culanach who married the beautiful young Áine O’Cahan. As my story indicates, after being ousted by his cousin, Domnall O’Neill, Niall was re-installed as king in 1291 only to be murdered by that same cousin.
According to an old article I found in researching medieval Ireland, Áine was nicknamed “Finvola”, an Irish name meaning “white shoulders”, a reference to her great beauty. Interestingly, Áine and Angus gave this name to their first daughter. Their second daughter, Mary, who is “the stubborn one” in my story, married William, the 5thEarl of Ross and became aunt to Donald of Islay, the next Macdonald chief in this series.
Áine O’Cahan was called “the gem of the Roe” (I changed it to “jewel” in my story). The word “Roe” was a reference to the River Roe, part of O’Cahan territory. The article said she was “a beauty of her time and known and talked of in Holyrood Palace, and her fame had even reached the English Court”. The same report said that Angus Og was enamored of her. This I discovered after I had contrived my own image of the dark-haired beauty who captured Angus Og’s heart. In turn, he would be her one true love.
Áine outlived her Macdonald husband by many years, leaving the Isles to her surviving Macdonald son, John of Islay, who became the next Lord of the Isles. Though she returned to Ireland to live out her days, perhaps with her brother Dermot and her son, Brian, she often visited John of Islay. John tried twice, unsuccessfully, to install his half-brother, Brian O’Neill, as King of Tirowen.
Married Irish women did not take their husband’s name, so the widowed Áine would have been “the daughter of O’Cahan” when Angus met her. And, since Irish noblewomen prized their long flowing hair, according to expert Dr. Katherine Simms, they were rather lax about wearing veils.
