The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. II] OF SCOTLAND 203
Somerled, his grandson of the same name ^
appears
remained in undisturbed possession of the extensive territories
to have
on the mainland of Scotland, to which he succeeded ; and
although we do not find him during that period in active
rebellion, or offering any decided opposition to the govern-
ment, yet there is reason to think that he formed the principal
support to the numerous rebellions raised during that period
in favour of the rival family of Mac William.
He appears, however, to have rendered a more active
assistance to the last attempt made by that family in 1221,
A.D. 1221.
and the
occasion
king probably took advantage of that
i= t' J &
to make an effort to reduce him more
efifectuall}' under his power, for in that year, Alexander,
having collected an army in Lothian and Galloway, attempted
to penetrate the recesses of Argyll
by
by sea, but was beat back
a tempest, and forced to take refuge in the Clyde. On
the
but
failure of this attempt, Alexander was not discouraged,
was resolved to attempt an expedition by land. He
collected a large army from every quarter, and entered Argyll,
and whether it is to be attributed to the military skill of the
royal leader, or, as is more probable, to the incompetency of
his adversary, and the divisions which have always existed
in a Celtic country so extensive as that ruled by him, yet
certain it is that in this year the king made himself master
of the whole of Argyll, and Somerled took refuge in the Isles,
where he met a violent death eight years afterwards.
According to Winton, the most honest and trustworthy of
all our chroniclers—
" De kyng that yhere Argyle wan
Dat rebell wes til hym befor than
For wythe hys Ost thare in wes he
And Athe' tuk of thare Fewte,
'
The Scottish Historians and High- a Norse Saga, which mentions a
land Sennachies are unanimous in Somerled a king, and calls him a
asserting that Somerled was sue- relation of Duncan, the son of Dugall.
ceeded hy another Somerled, who I have ventured to call him son of
rebelled against Alexander II. in Gillecolum, and grandson of Somerled,
1221 ; and their account is confirmed as the only probable supposition,
by the Anecdotes of Olave the Black,