The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP III] OF SCOTLAND 217
danger of permitting matters to remain in their present position,
at length determined, and that with a degree of energy which
his character had given Httle reason to expect, in person to
proceed against the rebels, and for this purpose commanded
the attendance of the steward with the barons of the realm.
But the steward, now perceiving that the continuance of the
rebellion of the Isles would prove fatal to his party, by the
great influence which he possessed over his son-in-law, succeeded
in persuading him to meet the king at Inverness and to submit
himself to his authority, and the result of this meeting was
a treaty entered into between "
Johannes de Yla, dominus
insularum " on the one hand, and " David, Dei gratia rex
Scotorum " on the other, in which John not only engaged to
submit to the royal authority and to take his share of all public
burdens, but also to put down all others who dared to raise
themselves in opposition to the regal authority. For the ful-
filment of this obligation the lord of the Isles not only gave
his own oath, but offered the high steward, his father-in-law,
as security, and delivered his lawful son Donald by the steward's
daughter, his grandson Angus by his eldest lawful son John,
and a natural son also named Donald, into the hands of the
king as hostages.
By the accession of Robert Stewart to the throne of Scotland,
which took place shortly after this event, the lord of
the Isles was once more brought into close connexion with
the crown, and as John remained during the whole of this
reign in a state of as great tranquillity as his father Angus
had been during that of Robert Bruce, the policy of thus
connecting these turbulent chiefs with the government by the
ties of friendship and alliance, rather than that of attempting
to reduce them to obedience by force and forfeiture, became
very manifest. King Robert, no doubt, saw clearly enough
the advantage of following the advice left by Robert Bruce
for the guidance of his successors, not to allow the great
territories and extensive influence of these Island lords ever
again to be concentrated in the person of one individual ; but
the claims of John were too great to be overlooked, and
accordingly Robert had been but one year on the throne, when
John obtained from him a feudal title to all those lands which