Donald of the Isles

- Abt 1250

• Name	Donald of the Isles
  Gender	Male
  Death	Abt 1250  [1]
  Burial	Iona, Argyllshire, Scotland   [2]
  Siblings	1 sibling
  + 1. Donald of the Isles   d. Abt 1250 ▻ (Unknown) Stewart + 2. Roderick ▻
  Person ID	I27459	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of GFS, Ancestor of JMF, Ancestor of TWK
  Last Modified	28 Mar 2020

  
  

  Father	Reginald of the Isles   d. 1207
  Family ID	F16397	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	(Unknown) Stewart
  Children	+ 1. Angus Mor of the Isles   d. Abt 1296
  Family ID	F16396	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	28 Mar 2020

  
  

• Notes

  The figure after whom Clan Donald is named. From The Scots Peerage, citation details below: King Alexander II had no sooner ascended the throne in 1214 than the old disturbers of the realm, the MacWilliams and Macheths rose in rebellion and received the ready assistance of the Lord of the Isles. Fired by resentment against the island chief, the King made a descent on Argyll in 1221, but his fleet was driven back by a storm, and the attempt to subjugate the district was for the time abandoned. In the following year the King fitted out a fresh expedition, and if John of Fordun and Wyntoun, who alone record the enterprise, are to be believed, he succeeded in enforcing the allegiance of the Celtic chiefs of Argyll. It is certain that the campaign made little or no impression on the power or position of the Lords of the Isles. Whether King Alexander would have pursued his campaign further it is difficult to say, for death arrested all his plans in the island of Kerrara in 1249. Meanwhile the Lord of the Isles had secured the friendship of King Haco of Norway by successfully opposing the pretensions of Ewen of Lorn, who had invaded the Isle of Man and declared himself King. This friendship with Norway continued until the close of the Norse occupation of the Isles. That Donald's life had been a stormy one, and not altogether free from the crimes and excesses common to that age, the traditional historian leads us to infer. He tells how the island chief made a pilgrimage to Rome accompanied by seven priests, and having made confession of his crimes received the absolution he craved. Having obtained the forgiveness of the Church, Donald, following the example of his father, granted to the monks of Paisley eight cows for one year, and one penny, or eight cows as a permanent yearly payment for every house on his territories that emitted smoke. In the charter conveying these grants he is styled Lord of the Isles. Donald, Lord of the Isles, died about the middle of the thirteenth century, and was buried in lona. He married a daughter of Walter, High Steward of Scotland.

  
  

• Sources

  [S128] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant ed. Vicary Gibbs, H. A. Doubleday, Duncan Warrand, Howard de Walden, Geoffrey H. White and R. S. Lea. 2nd edition. 14 volumes (1-13, but volume 12 spanned two books), London, The St. Catherine Press, 1910-1959. Volume 14, "Addenda & Corrigenda," ed. Peter W. Hammond, Gloucestershire, Sutton Publishing, 1998. [S800] The Scots Peerage, Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, Containing an Historical and Genealogical Account of the Nobility of That Kingdom. Ed. James Balfour Paul. Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1904-1914.